Sakura Yuhi : Blossoms of the Illusionary Warrior
by Basilla
Summary: 2 year old Sakura is lucky to live after her whole clan is captured for Orochimaru's 'experiments'. After being adopted by her mother's friend, Kurenei, how will Sakura's life change? Main Pairing: Sakura/Rock Lee
1. Prologue

**PROLOGUE**

"Mama!" The little pink haired girl shouted. She had an abnormally large forehead, large cerulean eyes and pudgy little fingers. She was wearing a pink, cottony T-shirt and plain white trousers.

"Shukei!" Sumomo shouted, urging her husband to come. "Saku-chan just said her first word!"

A plain looking, black haired man came rushing in. "She really? Whadidshe say?" He blurted, eyes darting from his two-year old daughter to his civilian wife.

"She said," Sumomo began...

"Mama!" Sakura exclaimed again, her pudgy arms holding tight onto her mother's legs.

The equally civilian looking husband frowned. "Aww, what about Daddy?" He asked playfully, throwing his daughter up into the air before catching her again.

"Hehehehe," The little girl giggled, "Daddy!" She cried as the playing stopped. She hugged her equally-civillian father tightly, causing him to smile softly.

"Aww, so cute!" Sumomo said, tickling her daughter.

"Ahn...Ahm...Ah..." Sakura muttered, before falling asleep on her father's shoulder. He could always make her do that.

"Anyway, we need to go, remember? Haruno clan meeting?" Shukei urged his wife.

"Darnit, I nearly forgot. C'mere Saku-chan!" Sumomo said, prodding her only daughter. Sakura woke up, bleary eyed and yawning, and preceded to be dressed into a mini-kimono by her mother.

10 minutes later, they made their way to the Haruno meeting hall. It was just a small room, really, but the Haruno clan were not a big one- a couple of elders and 3 or 4 families, tops.

Shukei, Sumomo and Sakura entered, taking their usual seats (Sakura on Sumomo's lap.)

"I hereby call this clan meeting, begun." The Haruno elder, Shushi , announced as the procession begun. It was really just a summary of the last months doings- Finances, stocks etc.

10 minutes into the meeting, an explosion was heard. Something that made little Sakura's life change forever.

The door burst open in a cloud of smoke as several black ninja suit donning missing-nin entered, holding katanas.

"Harunos...today is your unlucky day...Orochimaru-sama wants test subjects and it seems that you'll do just fine...yesss..." One of the men, obviously the leader stated. Sakura started crying in fear as everyone else was routed to the spot.

The Haruno clan, although a clan, was mainly a civilian clan. There were a few ninja, but they were unremarkable at best.

One of the shinobi threw a small metal canister. It hit the ground, landing right in front of Elder Shushi's lap, before hissing and letting off a tendril of purple smoke. Immediately, Shushi's eyes became glazed. His muscles became lax as his tongue flopped out, saliva dripping everywhere. Then he fainted.

The other members followed suit, one by one dropping to the floor, unconscious. However, Sumomo was determined to protect her child.

She grabbed Sakura tightly, mentally wailing as she watched her husband drop to the floor, unconscious. "DADDY!" Sakura screamed in fear. She didn't know what happened, but it obviously wasn't good. The shinobi, who were already hauling away the unconscious bodies, ignored her. She'd die soon anyway.

Before the shinobi could say anything, Sumomo jumped out of the window. Shards of glass flew everywhere as she landed on the soft grass, back first. She didn't matter...just to protect little Sakura...

She was close to death, but her body fought the few atoms of poison that had entered. Blood sprayed as she got up tiredly, her cuts evident for all to see. Her clothes, which were her favourite, were torn, ripped and dirty.

Holding Sakura as tight as her rapidly failing body could, she made her way to the one person she knew she could trust. She reached the door, knocking faintly, before falling to the ground.

Dead.

"MAMA!" Sakura screamed, revealing her presence to the household. Faintly muffled footsteps made their way to the door as Sakura continued to wail her mother's name, wanting her to wake up and hug her.

"What's thi- Sumomo!" A feminine voice gasped, before rushing down to her friend's side. She frantically checked for a pulse, a heartbeat, a breath...anything...

Nope. She was definitely gone for the count.

It was then that Kurenei Yuhi heard the voice of the little girl that she had seen every once in a while.

"Shh shh...Shh Sakura, everything's gonna be alright." Kurenei said, cuddling the girl. Sakura's normally beautiful eyes were glazed over with tears, the outer rim being puffy and swollen from crying. Her whole body was trembling.

"Mama...Daddy..." She muttered, breaking into a fresh wave of tears. Kurenei comforted her as best as was in her abilities, and it was then that she suddenly made herself a promise.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The day afterwards, the village was in uproar. No one really cared that much about the Haruno clan – just the fact that several rogue ninja had made it into the village, captured a whole clan and escaped with them, without anyone the wiser.

The Sandaime Hokage sighed. This was too much for his old body. He was supposed to be resting the rest of his days away, in some sunny beach...possibly watching bakini-clad chicks all day.

A knock on the door brought his attention to the real world as he puffed on his pipe. After permission was given, Kurenei Yuhi, chuunin genjutsu master, emerged, holding a pink haired baby in her hands. Sarutobi's eyes widened.

"Is that...?" He asked, leaving the question to drag.

"Sakura Haruno." Kurenei informed, nodding solemnly. She was extremely tired, having stayed up the whole night with Sakura to ease her fears.

"I'd like to...adopt her." Kurenei said, her crimson eyes determined.

"That...can be arranged. From now on, she'll be registered as Sakura Yuhi?" Hiruzen asked, wondering if she wanted to keep the clan's name or not.

"That is...preferable." Kurenei answered, her gaze never leaving the old man.

"Good. From tomorrow, she will officially be of the Yuhi family. Dismissed." Hiruzen Sarutobi said, mentally grimacing.

'_This'll be a lot of paper work.' _

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

**That was just a prologue, as the name suggests. If I get positive feedback, I'll continue. Don't think I've left out the Jinchuuriki duo tho, I've just hit a writer's block the size of Canada, so spare me some slack.**


	2. Making Friends

"Happy fourth birthday, Saku-chan!" Kurenai said excitedly, holding the 4 year old in the air, throwing it up and down like a rag doll. Just like her father used to...

"Happy birthday, gaki!" 'Aunty' Anko said, ruffling the four year old's hair.

"Happy birthday, little one." The 'Grandpa' Hokage said.

"Eehehehehe!" Sakura giggled, "Pwesents!" She said, holding her arms out.

"Not until the par-Anko!" Kurenai shouted as Anko gave the four year old a box wrapped in green and white paper.

'_Might as well!'_ Kurenai thought.

"Here ya go, gaki!" Anko said, giving the excited Sakura a hug.

"Sakura, I hope you enjoy my present," The hokage said, handing her a brightly wrapped, yellow and red box.

"Mama?" Sakura said, holding the presents so Kurenai couldn't see her face.

"Here ya go, Saku-chan!" She said, giving the biggest box of all.

"Don't open it yet, Sakura. I've got someone for you to meet." Hiruzen said.

"Hello!" A bright little blonde haired four year old said, jumping out from behind Sarutobi's legs. "I'm Nawuto! Who are you?" He said brightly.

"I – I'm Sakuwa." She replied shyly. She hadn't had much friends since that incident two years ago. People stayed away from the last Haruno, saying that the whole clan had gone bad and joined Orochimaru, leaving the girl behind. Darned rumours.

"C'mon! Let's go play!" He shouted, grabbing her hand and running off. It was all she could do to _not _fall over.

The adults chuckled...this had been exactly what they wanted.

"You really think that boy can bring Sakura out of her little shell?" Kurenai asked as she watched them run around in the garden.

"He's kinda cute...looks tastey..." Anko said, licking her lips in a most snake like way. Kurenai immediately jumped back in mock horror, shouting.

"Pedophile! Stay away from my daughter!" Kurenai said, as Sarutobi laughed.

"I was...! I just meant...! I didn't..." Anko blabbered in surprise. She continued to try and get the blame off her until a soft hand touched her soldier, revealing Kurenai laughing and smiling.

"Haha! You actually took me seriously!" Kurenai laughed.

They talked for a bit, Anko trying to bring out sake – until it was thrown at the house window. The Hyuugas wondered who gave them the mystery bottle that was sent flying through their window and landed on a purple velvet couch.

About an hour later, Sakura came running in, this time dragging Naruto along.

"Mama! Can I open the pwesents? I want to show my new fwend, Nawuto!" She shouted gleefully.

"Ooh yeah, pwesents! I forgot..." Naruto said, pulling out a smaller box.

Sakura immediately opened it, and was flabbergasted. In it was a beautiful – not really expensive, or quality – but beautiful ring, that had a pink cherry blossom on it.

"Old man hokage said that Sakuwa means chewwy blossom!" He said, causing the hokage to laugh.

"No, I said _Sakura _means _cherry _blossom! Don't twist my words!" Hiruzen said, tickling the little boy.

Meanwhile, Sakura put on the ring, before hugging Naruto. "Thank you! Let's be fwends foweva!" She said, Naruto agreeing.

"Aww, so cute! Maybe someday you'll get married, and have little annoying hyperactive gakis with blonde hair and big foreheads!" Anko said, killing the moment. Kurenai was glaring daggers at her.

"Why don't you open my present?" Sarutobi asked, trying to regain the mood.

Sakura did so, revealing several beautiful kimonos. According to the old man, she could put something called 'Chakra' in it to make it bigger, so when she grew up she could keep it.

"What is chakwa? Where can I buy it?" Sakura asked, confused.

"Don't worry, I'll teach you later. And that is what my present is for. Tell me Sakura, Naruto, what do you want to be when you grow up?" Kurenai asked kindly.

"Ninjas!" They shouted simultaneously, while Naruto added, "And I'm gonna take the old man's hat!"

The adults chuckled as Sakura made her way towards the green and white present, from Anko. For some reason, it was shaking abit and she heard a hissing sound.

Opening it frantically, she found a beautiful pale pink and red snake, with cerulean eyes like hers. Kurenai gasped.

"Don't worry, it's tame! I had it bred specially since I met her. It is still a babe, but if she grows up with it she will be able to perform jutsu with it. It will also become larger..." Anko said vaguely.

"How large?" Kurenai asked.

"About...the size...of...a...ahem...horse." Anko said sheepishly, scratching the back of her head.

"WHAT!" Kurenai burst out, before the hokage bent down and whispered in her ear. She immediately turned and looked at her daughter, who had the snake curled around her neck and was tickling it.

"I know, I'll call you...Hebi-Hana (Snake Flower)." She said, kissing it's cold nose. It did something no one had ever heard before – a snake...well, it sort of _purred _.

"Thank you aunty Anko!" She said, hugging Anko as the snake twisted and twirled around her arms.

"Is...Is it poisonous?" Kurenai asked worriedly.

"Not until it is 6 years old. It's two years old right now."Anko replied.

"Hmm...Ok, Saku-chan, why don't you open my present!" Kurenai said, hefting the box. Sakura opened it, revealing several things she recognised from sneaking into 'Mama's' room.

Inside sat, folded carefully, a beautiful pale pink outfit with hints of black that looked like Kurenai's, except there was black trousers. The top, which covered her to about mid hip, was all pale pink bandages, under which was a fishnet shirt made of chakra inforced steel threads. The shirt extended to Sakura's wrists, but was covered in a light black cloth to make it look better. Again, like the kimonos, it could be resized with the addition of 'chakwa'. There were several copies, including 2 where the colours were inverted, bandages black and light pink sleeves. There were also several kunai holders and a belt that had special clasps, which again used 'chakwa' to stick scrolls and other items to. She loved it.

"Now I can become a weal ninja!" She shrieked, hugging Kurenai savagely. She really loved the whole outfit.

Naruto angrily turned to his 'Oji-chan'.

"When do I get one like that!" He complained.

"We'll see." Was all Hiruzen said.

The party wore on until 8pm, where Hiruzen took Naruto home and left. Anko then turned to her 'niece'. "You know, mama did get that for a reason." She said.

"Yes. From now on...I'm going to train you to be a ninja!" She said as Sakura jumped up and down excitedly.

"Mommy, I want to be a ninja just like you! And aunty Anko! I will use pictures to make bad people see funny things and make snakes bite bad handies!" She said excitedly.

"Take it easy. Now, tomorrow we will begin training, but today we are going to _teach _you some basics. Now, the first I'll teach you about is _chakra_. You need chakra for every jutsu you do!" Kurenai said, as Sakura interrupted.

"But mama, what's a jutsu?" She asked observantly.

"A jutsu is any technique, like using the pictures to make bad people see funny things, or making a big fire. It all uses chakra. Now anyway, chakra uses two energies from your body – the physical energy – you get that from training and being strong – and spiritual energy – you get that from being smart and intelligent. You understand?"

"Yes mama!" She said. Little Sakura's brain was like a sponge, soaking up information like Naruto soaks up ramen. She had learned to talk properly at the age of three, but she preferred talking like a little girl, because that is, essentially, what she was.

"Now, there are lots of types of jutsus. Jutsus are the mystical arts that we, as ninja, use in battle. Anko, show Saku-chan a jutsu!" Kurenai urged, her glare telling her it better not have anything to do with snakes.

"_Hidden shadow snake hands!_" Anko cried, performing some hand seals. Immediately, several snakes emerged from her hand and started tickling Sakura.

"Stop! Ahahahah stop!" Sakura giggled, unaware of the death glares being sent to Anko.

"Ahem." Kurenai said as the snakes retracted, "They can be offensive- they hurt people, defensive- they stop you or other people from being hurt , supplementary- it can help with offense or defence, or it can be healing. There are three types of jutsu – Taijutsu , that is punching, kicking, throwing – it is hitting with one's bare hands. Genjutsu – That uses illusions, that make people see things that are not happening. I'm very good at that. And ninjutsu – These are techniques, which are just anything else that really uses chakra – and it is real...like making big fires, or water bullets, or cutting waves or wind." She continued explaining how hand seals work, and a tiny bit about medical and elemental chakra.

"I...I get it!" Sakura said, while her brain processed the information. " I want to learn genjooto like Mama!" She said.

"Aww, how cute. Anyway, let's get you to bed you hyperactive monster." Kurenai said, chuckling as she picked up her droopy eyed surrogate daughter and took her to her room. She tucked the girl in, giving her a goodnight kiss, before closing the light and leaving.

"I have a feeling...just a feeling, that she is going to pass everyone's expectations." Anko said to her friend, as they began to chat.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Mama! I wanna do a jootoo!" Sakura cried happily, running to the garden where her mother was.

"Well...first you will have to _use _chakra. Here, do this..." Kurenai said, putting a seal with her hands. She focused on her chakra, before pulling at it.

Sakura watched in amazement as 'Mama' started glowing blue, then she was covered in a blue fire. She immediately did the same, but could only manage a faint glow.

"I...I think, it is because you have very low chakra. Remember what we learned yesterday? How are we going to get you lots of chakra?" Kurenai asked, looking at her surrogate daughter.

"We...I have to become stronger and smarter!" She said, jumping up and down.

"Thats good...Now, Sakura, listen." She said, crouching down on her knees so she was face to face with her daughter. "The path of the ninja is very hard. You might be killed some day, someone close to you might be killed...you will have to kill...It is hard. Are you sure?"

"Yes mama! Cause I want to become a ninja so no one close to me gets killed and I can pwotect them!" She said excitedly.

"Okay, go on now! Do... as much laps as you can around the garden!" Kurenai said as Sakura sped off.

She only managed 5 laps around garden. That was about 200 metres. It was good, considering she was not really from a ninja family. But it was terrible by ninja standards. Kurenai would fix that...

"Hmm..." she said, looking at her daughter, who was panting on the ground. "Time for calisthenics!"

"Whats Calithy...Calithics...Calithy something!" Sakura asked as her breathing began to regulate once more.

"You'll see. Do...10 situps!" Kurenai said, as Sakura did as she was ordered. For an hour they worked like that, Kurenai randomly shouting something – Situps, press-ups, laps, squat thrusts...By the end, Sakura was exhausted.

"Ok, now that is done. For an hour we are going to work on mathematics. Then we will do another hour of calisthenics, and an hour of geography, then an hour of calisthenics, then jutsu theory..."

And thats how they spent their days. Anko would often pop in, taking the lessons for Kurenai when she had a mission. Naruto, once he found out, came every day to train with her. Sakura was annoyed to find out that he could go 5 hours of calisthenics before he got as exhausted as she did.

They worked on controlling Sakura's chakra, which did increase over the months. She got stronger, fitter, smarter and on the whole – a better ninja to be. They didn't begin her with any jutsus, but Anko did give her plenty of evasion training, aswell as weapon aiming. She also taught her to bond with her snake, Hebi-hana.

They didn't start on jutsus or any martial arts. They wanted to get her raw power and her chakra levels up, aswell as her control and her intelligence.

By the age of six, which Kurenai thought came to quickly, she had at least genin level chakra. It was a good improvement, considering she had basically nothing. She could hit bulls eye 1 out of 2 times, she could send Naruto flying whenever she hit him, she could walk up trees, and was ok at walking on water. She had spent alot of time with Hebi-hana, talking to it, teaching it. Eventually, the snake began to develop a conscious mind (with alot of help of Anko's snake summons. They could talk with the snake.) It may seem absurd, but the snake could use her chakra to stick to trees as it slithered along. By now it was roughly the size of a medium-sized dog, and it slept in bed with Sakura.

Today was her 6th birthday. It seemed like just yesterday **(A/N or a couple of paragraphs ago) **that Sakura first got Hebi-hana, that she had first met Naruto...

"Sakura-chan! Sakura-chan! Happy birthday!" Naruto shouted, barging in the house. He had stopped knocking a year ago- he had basically become part of the family. He was wearing, to Sakura's unspoken delight, the dark orange suit she had gotten him on his last birthday, aswell as the fox plushie from the one before. The mixture made her giggle.

He was holding a large, lightweight box in his hand, and he had a box shaped bulge in his pocket. Anko soon followed in (of course, not until some snake summons had scared the shit out of all of 'em), holding a small book. Sarutobi also came in, but to everyone's surprise, he was empty handed. Kurenei had already given her a present – a complete snake caring package, along with a minor genjutsu that made the snake look like a pink scarf if it wound around her neck.

Deciding to get the presents over and done with, Naruto gave her the box. Inside, it contained a spray can with the writing "Jet Black", A paper containing scrawled notes on his ideas for a jutsu for her, aswell as a new ninja uniform that looked exactly like her mother's. Sakura immediately knew what it was for, and she had been preparing for it – saving up for weeks, aswell as growing her hair to shoulder length.

The blonde then pulled out a small box, which by the looks of it was a jewellery box. Sakura opened it, not even hesitating, and was surprise when she found a necklace which said "Friends forever" , some earrings with cherry blossoms on them and some bright pink gloves.

She pulled her best friend in a bonecrushing hug. She had no idea where she would be without him. When she was down, he was there. When she was falling, he would catch her. It was like the BROTHER **(A/N Hint Hint NOT ROMANTIC) **she never had.

Anko's book contained lots, and I mean LOTS of tips on raising snakes, using them for fighting, creating snake involved jutsus. It also contained lots of Anko's own jutsu, aswell as her self made ones – and that really meant something. When you make your own jutsu, it is often something precious, treasured and passed along the generations. It was amazing, in Sakura's point of view.

Sarutobi came up to her, before saying, "Happy birthday Sakura. Your getting bigger! Now, I didn't know what to get you this year, because I knew that you wouldn't like civilian things, and you have enough ninja things," He said, gesturing towards the other three. Everyone was wondering where this was going. "I am going to teach you three jutsu of your liking."

Sakura immediately screeched, hugging the Hokage and jumping up and down. If she was taught this jutsus, it would be the first she had ever been taught – apart from the snake scarf thing.

The party went well, even though it was just the four of them. At about 5pm, the adults decided to take the kids to the park.

The walk through the village passed in uncomfortable silence. Sakura couldn't help but notice glares sent at her best friend, and instinctively lent closer. Naruto felt guilty because he thought they were glaring at her because of him. However, the glares stopped when they felt huge killing intent from the Hokage, no less. Rumours of the great professor being under the 'demon's' spell circulated for several weeks after that.

Upon reaching the park, many adults took their children away, until only the shinobi clan children were left. Looking around, Sakura saw a pudgy boy aswell as a thin one with pineapple shaped hair lying under a tree, staring at clouds. She could see a blonde haired girl in a ponytail wearing a shape hugging purple outfit jabbering to some people. They also saw a shy looking girl with beautiful lavender eyes, short blackish purple hair and a large oversized white-grey coat.

Naruto, seeing that she seemed to be the only person alone, could not bear to see someone hurting and lonely like that. He led Sakura to the girl, which the adults recognised as the Hyuuga heiress.

"Hi! I noticed you were alone, do you want to play?" Naruto said abruptly.

The girl was shocked out of her finger prodding. Her head flew up so quickly, everyone was surprise it didn't break. Her eyes widened. She had never had friends – she was shy, and being the Hyuuga heiress, no one wanted to risk it. No one saw her as Hyuuga Hinata, just Hyuuga-sama and Heiress-san. It sickened her.

Yet here was an energetic blonde, who only saw her as a lonely little girl, and not the Hyuuga heiress.

"I-I-I g-guess. As l-l-long as I w-w-won't be a b-b-burden." She stammered.

"Burden? Perish the thought!" Naruto joked, before holding out his hand. "I'm Naruto, and this is my friend Sakura. It is her birthday today."

"Do you want to be our friend?" Sakura asked. Hinata was so overjoyed, that she stammered on every syllable.

"Y-Y-Yes-s-s!" She said. She felt something...something she hadn't felt since before her mother...passed. Happiness. Running around, as just Hinata. Not a Hyuuga, not an almighty heiress – just Hinata.

And so a very strong bond of friendship was made between the three. Later in the years, Sakura would recall this being the best day of her life

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXxx

**There we go.**

**As you may have noticed from Anko's little demonstration, jutsus will be in English. Translating, aswell as writing down the translating, is not only troublesome but confusing. It's also Mendokuse ;D**

NOTE

Chapter 15 of the Jinchuuriki Duo posted

Basilla, OUT.


	3. Training, Adoption and Hyuuga Ambush

The kunai spun at incomprehensible speeds as Sakura continually willed her chakra into the sharp tool of war. She was now 7 year old, and probably entering the academy in two years. She was nervous, but she knew that her abilities were good. She now had chuunin level chakra capacity, aswell as high chuunin level chakra control. She wasn't exactly tall but then again, she was taller than Naruto, or as she called him – Chibaka (Chibi Baka).

Her throwing skills were in mint conditions, aswell as her evasions. She didn't waste any movement, using the slightest flicks and body movements to dodge from kunai, shuriken and hits. She had also changed her appearance – her hair was long and silky, dyed black and she had crimson contact lenses. She often wore the version of her armour that was exactly the same as her mother- all in all, people said she was the 'Mini-kurenai', with a big forehead.

She had yet to learn any decent level jutsu – Her jutsu repertoire was small, very small – Body Substitution, Clone ,Body Flicker and the simple, unnamed genjutsu that hid her snake. The previous year , she had chosen her three jutsu scrolls from Hiruzen's personal library – First was Demonic Illusion : Disappearance. The second she had chosen was a healing jutsu, Mystical Palm, that would take along time of studying to learn, never mind use to its full extent. Last, but not least, was a Taijutsu style – It was called Serpentine Jabs. It involved extremely fast jabs that weren't meant to kill, but she did have several ideas. She would, hopefully make her own style that would suit her. Her, not very useful and still in progress jutsu was, Morph. It was a version of the henge that was permanently physical until she changed it – hopefully, with the end result she would be able to change hair length/colour and eye colour.

She had the book containing snake jutsu, but she and her snake, although very close, had not bonded to the specified point – you share each other's thoughts. So, until that day, that book was a no-go. However, much to Sakura's delight, Hebi-Hana had started talking the previous month.

"Sssakura-sssan..."Hebi's serpentine hiss rang through the clearing. "You have...visssitorsss..." It informed. Immediately, she let the kunai she had been spinning drop into her palm – it was her favourite kunai – one with a fox at the end, given to her by Naruto.

She put the kunai in it's holster, before getting up and going to meet her friends. She already knew who it was.

"Hey Hinata, Naruto." She said, eyeing them. They invited themselves in, making their way to the makeshift training ground – i.e. the garden.

"Hey, Hinata, lets spar!" Sakura said as Naruto went to say hello to Hebi.

The two boisterous youths had done wonders on Hinata- She had worked more in training and had lost her stutter around people she knew. However, she didn't show this to her father as she was afraid of hurting Hanabi.

"Ok Sakura-san." Hinata said, getting into her gentle fist. She did not open the Byakugan, or send chakra through her fist as she wasn't aiming to kill.

Sakura started the fight with a quick jab to the left, followed by a quick jab to the right and a double jab aimed at her eyes. Hinata evaded them by pirouetting to the side. She quickly retaliated, merging the graceful evasion into a full blown heel kick aimed at Sakura's head. The pink haired girl ducked it, sending several jabs towards Hinata's torso. One hit before Hinata managed to jump away.

Sakura continued, sending a swift chop towards Hinata's neck, followed by a spinning sweep kick and an elbow to the stomach. They were all dodged by the Hyuuga girl, who retaliated with several well aimed jabs at Sakura's arms. Had they hit, in a real fight, Sakura's arm would be numb and dead to any feeling at all. However, the 7 year old pulled her arm back at the last second, spinning away. Hinata closed in onto her with several graceful jabs at the pinkie's stomach. They would of hit, but suddenly Sakura was gone and in her place a floating leaf. Looking around, Hinata stayed on guard, wondering where her sparring partner was. She heard disturbances in the air, and just managed to jump out of the way as Sakura's flying axe kick hit the ground, making a mini-crater.

Getting up, Sakura frontflipped towards her friend, ending the flip with another axe kick. Hinata pirouetted to the left, but suddenly felt several jabs hit her arm. She flinched, surprised, and that was all Sakura needed to send a kick towards Hinata's feet that tripped her up. She immediately held a kunai up to Hinata's throat and muttered, "Dead. You lose."

Sakura knew that it would have been much harder had Hinata actually activated her Byakugan, but nevertheless, it was good experience. She bowed to her opponent before grabbing Hinata into a sweaty hug. A year ago, she would've fainted, but now she just returned the show.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The goal was simple. Keep your balloon alive, get to the end line – should've been easy, right?

Not when you have a blood lusty woman, along with a dozen snake and a genjutsu master on your back.

Hinata jumped off a tree, landing safely on the next, with Naruto and Sakura right behind her. This was the 100th time they had done it, and they had no clue how to do it.

It was Sakura who finally got the idea.

"Hinata! You hold our balloons and make your way to the startline. Naruto and I will hold them back!" Sakura shouted, carefully throwing her balloon t the Hyuuga girl. Naruto followed suit, his gaze resting on the girl for one more second as she jumped into the distance. They then turned around to face the rapidly approaching snakes.

The first one to come was the size of a horse – it was orange with black spots on it, and had fangs the size of thumbs. Naruto took it head on, rolling away from an attempted bite. Dodging another one, he got closer, kicking the snake low, before smashing his palm on its head twice. It dispelled in a puff of smoke. Another snake approached from behind, only to be swiftly dispelled by an axe kick from Sakura. Suddenly Anko appeared, sitting on top of another horse sized snake. She was laughing gleefully as she threw several kunai at the two seven year olds.

They dodged them all, getting into their stances as the snake, with Anko, got closer. The snake dodged several kunai and shuriken before flinging it's rider at the two youths. Anko's face could be describe as retardedly maniacal. She was laughing crazily, licking her lips as she flew straight towards Sakura. The pink haired girl rolled to a side as Anko picked herself up and turned around, slashing at her with a kunai. Steel met steel as it was blocked by Sakura's kunai, who swiftly countered with a slash to the leg, aswell as several jabs at her chest. They were all dodged as Anko laughed crazily, aiming a heel kick at Anko's head.

Naruto just finished dispelling that horse-sized snake as Sakura flashed a hand signal towards him. Dodging another kick from Anko, Sakura quickly backflipped off her tree, following Naruto as he ran off into Hinata's direction. Anko was surprised, but recovered quickly as she made chase.

10 minutes , several 100 kunai and just as much dodges later, Sakura and Naruto rolled past the finishing line, landing next to a bored looking Hinata. The Hyuuga gave the her two friends their balloons as Anko and Kurenai entered the seen.

"Who said you could give Hinata the balloon, eh Sakura?" Anko asked seriously.

"With all due respect Anko-sensei, but you never told us _not _to." Sakura replied determinedly.

Kurenai broke into a smile, "Good. You passed."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

*3 months later*

"YES! YES YES YES YES! WOOHOO!" Kurenai screamed happily, holding some sort of signed paper in her hand and waving it about like a woman possessed. "I'm...A JOUNIN!"

Sakura entered from the garden, wondering what all the fuss was. "Jounin? Mom, congratulations!" She said, hugging her surrogate mother.

Anko strutted in afterwards, her signed paper, which told everyone she had made jounin, stuffed safely in her pocket.

"I'm going to be a jounin just like Mom when I grow up," Sakura said happily. "Are you going to have a team Mommy?" She asked.

"Not yet, Saku-chan." Kurenai said, ruffling her hair slightly.

Just then, Naruto barged in shouting, "Kurenai-san! I heard you got jounin!" He said happily. The Uzumaki boy had become like a son to the now jounin genjutsu mistress. It was hard not to see him that way when he came every day. She was disgusted by the way they treated him, for his _prisoner._ It had even rubbed off on herself and Sakura, the jounin being 'under the demon's spell' while Sakura was the apparent 'demon whore'. It angered her to no end.

Thinking about it now, she decided to do something about.

"Hey, Naruto?" Kurenai said, getting his attention. "Now that I'm jounin, I'll get more pay. Yes, I may be out for several days at a time for missions, but thats one reason why...well, do you want to move in with us?"

Anko smirked slightly, while both Sakura and Naruto were speechless. Sakura then shouted, "YEAH! That'd be SOOO cool! Naruto," she said, turning to her best friend, "You would be like my brother. You HAVE to accept!"

For the first time ever, Naruto was shy. "I-I-I...A-A-Are you s-s-ure? I w-won't be imposing?" He asked.

Kurenai frowned. It would probably be because of those damned civilians. He didn't like taking, but loved to give, if only to be recognised.

"Of course not! Someone has to protect my baby while I'm away!" She said, chuckling as she pinched Sakura's cheek.

Naruto faltered a bit, before saying, "Yeah! That'd be so cool! Thanks Kurenai-san!" He began to make his way to the door. "I'm just going to get my stuff, and tell Old Man Hokage!"

"Naruto. From now on, you call me Mom, Mama, Mum or Kaa-san. Deal?"

"Ok Kaa-san!" Naruto said, rushing out.

"You sure that is a good idea?" Anko asked.

"Of course it is Aunty Anko!" Sakura shouted. "I'm going to tell Hinata!" She said, rushing out just as Naruto had.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"So you want to adopt Naruto? Have you got a thing with adopting badly treated people with a bad past?" The Hokage joked, grimacing mentally.

"Have you seen the way those villagers treat him? They are _despicable _, and frankly, it disgusts me that you haven't done anything about it!" She said furiously.

"I know...there is one thing you should know before you adopt him." Sarutobi said, his mouth a grim line.

"If it is about his prisoner, I know." She said.

"No. His parents...are Kushina Uzumaki and-" Sarutobi began as Kurenai's eyes widened and she gasped.

"Minato Namikaze...THE Minato Namikaze? Yondaime Hokage, Yellow Flash of Konoha Minato Namikaze?" She asked frantically.

"Think about him. Where else have you seen such stunning blue eyes and spiky blonde hair?" The Hokage said, chuckling slightly.

"I see." Kurenai said, before saying, "Does he know?"

"No. You know that the Yondaime made hundreds, if not thousands of enemies. If Iwagekure found out that the son of the Yellow flash lived, they'd be sending assassinations every day."

"I see. Here are the adoption forms." Kurenai said, handing over the signed and filled in forms.

"Good. Every month you will receive some extra money, to put up with the boy. He eats _alot."_

"Fair enough, anything else?" She replied.

"No. Oh, and Kurenai? Congratulations – you are now a fully blown jounin!" The hokage congratulated, as Kurenai smiled slightly and left.

'_More paperwork' _The Hokage thought grimly. He could've sworn that the stack of papers was grinning evilly...

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

_*In Hyuuga Mansion*_

"Hanabi! You overextended!" Hiashi said harshly as the3 year old girl pulled her arm back slightly. Hinata looked at her sadly...she was only three after all.

All of a sudden, Hiashi felt weak. He received the bad end of a blinding headache, and his form drooped, before he fell on the floor, paralyzed. Hanabi followed suit, and Hinata watched with the Byakugan as several other Hyuuga forms dropped to the floor.

'_It must be something to do with the food. Thank god I ate at Kurenai-san's house today!' _Hinata thought as she got into her gentle fist stance.

Three black blurs jumped off a nearby tree, one which Hinata recognised as a newly recruited servant.

"Hyuuga." One of the shinobi spat out. "Leave, you live. Stay, pay the consequences." He continued dryly.

Hinata didn't reply, instead activating her Byakugan.

"I don't like hitting girls..." The apparent leader said, as he ordered one of the other two to attack her. It was only a seven year old...

Hinata swiftly dispatched the charging man with a harsh, cold hit to the chest. She had sent so much chakra that his heart exploded internally. Outside, the only difference was that- well he died.

"Idiot! You, go! Don't underestimate her!" The leader snarled, pointing towards the 'servant'. The man got out a sword, pouncing on to Hinata. She twirled slightly, shutting a Tenketsu on the man's back as she did. He snarled, brashly swinging his sword at her neck, aiming to take her pretty little head off once and for all. Hinata ducked, kneeing the man as she did. He cursed in pain, losing all sense of control and just blindly slashing and thrusting. Hinata dodged it all, twisting, twirling, rolling, jumping and ducking. Meanwhile, she cut off several more Tenketsu in his left arm. Before long, his arm was completely numb and he was forced to drop his sword and dodge a jab at his stomach.

Deciding to seal the deal, Hinata swiftly struck several Tenketsu on the man's temple. His brain shut down, resulting in all his organ's failing. He died before he hit the ground.

The leader snarled hatefully, forming several handseals. Hiashi looked on, worried for his daughter, yet too paralyzed to show it. "_Electricity Style : Shocking Hands." _ He said, his hands enveloping in a faint glow. He was about to make his way to the offending girl, but instead felt his jaw nearly breaking as something hit him from the side.

"Hinata! What's happening? I came to tell you something, but what happened? Hiashi-sama! Hinabi-san!" Sakura said frantically.

"GRR! NOW YOU ARE BOTH GOING TO _DIE! Water Style: Acidic Sword!" _The man shouted, swiping his hand upwards. Water from the Hyuuga ponds rushed up with it, slightly green as the poison added from the mixture. It slashed upwards, even though the man was 10 metres away from where Sakura stood. Said girl swiftly rolled to the side as the pressured water crashed into the ground, burning the grass. Meanwhile, Hinata had charged at the man, who was forced to block several Tenketsu strikes. Sakura joined the fight with an axe kick, forcing the man to roll backwards.

"_Electricity Style: Shocking Bullet" _The man screamed, making handseals half way through the dodge. Immediately, a crackling yellow bolt of electricity flew towards the girls, who rolled off into the separate directions. The man didn't notice the green scarf jump towards him, biting his hand. He felt them numb slightly at the undeveloped poison, and immediately knew that his hand seals would be sloppy. He then felt something jab at his side. Turning around, he saw nothing. He felt another punch hit his back as he turned around again. This time he managed to catch a faint shimmer, but it was too late as the ignored Hinata hit his neck Tenketsu, immediately putting him to a forced sleep.

The 'faint shimmer' disappeared, to reveal a panting pink haired girl. "That jutsu always takes alot from me." She said, smiling at her friend. She then forced herself to get up.

"Hinata, stay here. I'm going to get Mom!" She shouted, running off.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"MOM! THERE HAS BEEN AN ATTACK ON THE HYUUGA! THEY'RE ALL PARALYZED AND ONLY HINATA ISN'T AND SOMEONE ATTACKED HER AND I ARRIVED JUST IN TIME AND WE BEAT THEM AND...AND!" Sakura shouted, before having to breathe.

"Go to the Hokage, Sakura! Quick! Anko, go to the Hyuuga household, take Naruto with you, I'm going to the Konoha hospital to get medics! QUICK!" Kurenai shouted as she jumped out of the window, Anko and Naruto following suit as Sakura took the door.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The Hokage just finished signing the papers on Naruto's adoption as Sakura burst in.

"All the Hyuuga are paralyzed apart from Hinata! Someone attacked her, but I came in time to help him! C'mon!" She shouted, pulling his hand.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"WE NEED MEDICS! GET MEDICS TO THE HYUUGA HOUSEHOLD!" Kurenai shouted at the reception.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The medics, along with the Hokage, Kurenai and Sakura arrived 5 minutes. The medics immediately got to work, their hands already glowing the medical green chakra as they made their way to the paralyzed Hyuuga. The hokage went to get the full story as Anko tied up the sleeping intruder.

Kurenai made her way to the recently unparalyzed Hiashi Hyuuga. "You see? Your daughter is NOT a weakling! She single handedly took on two at least chuunin level ninja, and combined with Sakura, a high chuunin level one. You saw that acidic blade yourself, and judging from that burning, stinking hole over there, it looked nasty."

"Hinata...Why?" Hiashi said quietly as the Hokage finished talking with the Hyuuga Heiress.

"I...I'm afraid to hurt you or Hanabi-neechan in practice sessions. I can't do it." Hinata replied.

'_Maybe...just maybe...' _"I'm...I'm proud of you." He said monotonously, and to everyone's surprise, he hugged his daughter. She was in cloud 9 – she had two best friends, who would fight to the death to protect her, a practical mother figure in Kurenai, and now, finally, her father had recognised her.

A muffled 'Thank you!' was heard as Hiashi broke the short hug.

"Hina-hime!" Naruto said, using his recently developed nickname for the young girl. She blushed greatly at the multitude of cocked eyebrows from the awakened Hyuugas.s

'_She looks so cute when she blushes...did I just say cute?' _Naruto thought, blushing himself.

"Are you ok? Guess what! Kur-Kaa-san adopted me!" He said, jumping for joy while hugging his friend.

Hinata fainted.

'_I thought she stopped that' _Kurenai thought dryly.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

**There we go. On a parting note, I may have said that jutsus will be English, but ones like Chidori, Raikiri, Rasengan...Well, I can't have Kakashi shouting "1000 birds!" Or Naruto screaming "Spiralling Sphere!" It just wouldn't work.**

**Otherwise, nearly everything shall be English, apart from Honourifics and stuff like pet names (Hebi Hana – Snake Flower, Serpentine Flower – whatever. ) By the way, those who complain about length on a daily basis ; the prologue was short, for effect, and I usually aim for 2500-3000 words. I've seen loads that do at tops 500-1000. **

**Review, or Hebi will eat you. **


	4. The Sasuke Incident

Over the years, Sakura grew up just fine. She , in appearances, was a mini-Kurenai, but her skills were only just starting to really show.

By now, Hebi-Hana was the size of a baby horse and had fully developed two poisons – one to numb, one to paralyze. She was developing her last one – one to kill. After use, it took a week to restock. Sakura, with Anko's help, had milked several bottles, developing an antidote and poisoning several kunai.

Sakura's team work with the now 7 year old snake was really showing. The snake could act independently in battle, attacking the feet of any unlucky enemies, or it could twirl around Sakura's body, slithering and adding fast jabs. They had also learnt a gatsuuga-resembling jutsu, both girl and snake using their chakra to spin around rapidly and attack the enemy. That was the only snake jutsu, apart from another genjutsu that made the snake look like an oversized dog.

On to other ideas, in two years, Sakura had mainly worked on her chakra source. After that day with the Hyuuga Ambush , she was annoyed when she was exhausted after using Demonic Illusions : Disappearance. She worked and worked, even developing her own methods of increasing chakra. She now had chakra that rivalled Kurenai's, and chakra control to match. However, she hadn't worked on jutsus much(it took 3 months of egging from Naruto to get her to learn her Snake Drill). She had perfected her morph, which allowed her to have long flowing black hair, as well as crimson eyes, without dyes and contact lenses. Kurenai and Anko had learned it ; it was useful for missions.

Of course, because she had to increase _physically _to increase chakra, she had become a well muscled girl, despite it being hidden by several layers of pale pink bandages. She had opted to wear a light civilian shirt after a nasty incident involving her bandages being snagged onto a thorn. Also, she had the knowledge of most jounin, but she lacked the experience.

Her Taijutsu style – Serpentine jabs was coming on very well. She still didn't finish her completed one, but she had integrated Hebi into it, often doing combo moves together. With the help of Hinata, she had added a push of chakra with her jabs – although it didn't close Tenketsu unless she got very lucky it did disrupt the chakra flow, and if she aimed it at organs, it could severely damage. Her genjutsu still lacked for her last part of her custom style...Her evasion was as good as it was 2 years prior, so she had learned how to use a kunai properly for blocking. She had wanted to get a weapon but nothing quite fit her.

Naruto had also developed. He was part of the Yuhi family, but he kept his name as Uzumaki. He naturally had the chakra capacity that'd give most Kages a run for their money, but his chakra control – well, a horse was better.

It took two, frustrating years to get his chakra control good enough to create a Bunshin. At first, although it wasn't his fault, he couldn't create any at all – 100 sickly bunshins would turn up, crouching on the floor and puking, before dispelling. He had opted to learn the Kage Bunshin from the Hokage (after a month of begging) and he naturally took it into his stride, fitting it nicely with his Dragon style that he was learning, though nearly had it down. It suited him perfectly – strong, firm and fast. He had the necessary strength, but had resorted to good old weights to get his speed up. He had found the perfect weapon – two knuckle dusters with spikes at the end whose size could be altered by the addition of chakra.

After the threat of a ramen ban, Naruto changed his entire outfit. As Kurenai said, 'It screams COME KILL ME ASAP!". He opted to wear a weird vest called a Kevlar vest that Kunai and Shuriken couldn't penetrate. He had trousers made of a similar material, but it was heavy. It acted as extra waits. However, on top he wore a plain, long black shirt and black shinobi pants, with a long jacket similar to Yondaime's, but black with orange flames. He found that the shinobi sandals were not very efficient, instead opting to wear steel-toed black leather boots. He had several kunai holsters and a small device that used a minimal amount of chakra for his knuckle dusters to clip on to his belt.

He was a ninjutsu fanatic, but not in the wrong way like Orochimaru had been. Everyone knew exactly what to get him on his birthdays – a nice, C/B Rank jutsu. He had about 15 in his repertoire, and could not wait till he was skilled enough to get better ones.

His genjutsu, to put it plainly, sucked. It was something to do with the Kyuubi's chakra – he literally hadn't learnt a single genjutsu, but had been taught enough to sufficiently dispel most average level jutsu. Besides, in his opinion, who needed genjutsu when you could use a well placed kick to send most enemies flying 5 metres into the air?

Hinata had also progressed, although she had began to make her own version of the gentle fist that suited her flexibility. The new style, which was still unnamed, was better for her, as she didn't have to overextend because of her petite size. She had yet to have it named, because she felt something was missing.

Although her style didn't require strength, a jaw shattering punch here and there could turn the tide of the battle which she had found out two years ago. She had greatly increased her strength, intelligence and speed, which in turn increased her chakra. She had learnt several Hyuuga based jutsus from her father, which made her a deadly close ranged fighter, but she lacked anything for long ranged. She had perfected her aim, but she didn't have jutsus, which she resolved to change after finding out her element was water.

She had also changed her appearance. Gone were the oversized grey coat and the blue, loose fitting pants. Instead, she wore a black fishnet shirt, on top of which was a sleeveless, violent violet vest and a pale lavender trench coat with the her custom symbol – a red cloudy looking flame in a yellow oval – on the shoulders. She wore fishnet socks that reached mid hips, on top of which were violet ¾ length slightly loose trousers with white stripes on either side. Easily accessible Kunai and Shuriken holders were on the left and right side of her black belt.

She also, to everyone's surprise, sported two Tantos – double edged short swords about 12 inches long. She was still getting used to it, but it was just perfect for her flexibility – her twists, turns and spins combined with two blades in her hands was rather a deadly combination. Her tantos were called Kiki and Jin – Strength and Virtue. Kiki was slightly longer than Jin, being about 14 inches. It hand the kanji of "Strength" on its golden-wrapped handle. Jin, being 11 inches, had the Kanji for "Virtue" on its silver wrapped handle. She had been having lessons, after much begging, to the recently returned (from the 12 guardians) Asuma Sarutobi.

The three had excellent teamwork together, fighting like one, nasty deadly whirlwind, and filling in each other's weaknesses on natural instinct. It was like they were made for each other.

Anko, Kurenai and even Asuma had noticed this, and were constantly petitioning with the Hokage to make sure they were put on the same team. The Hokage said that he'd 'Think about it', which everyone took as a 'No', resulting in them just coming back next do and coming to ask for it again.

Back to the present – "Hina-hime, don't worry! You'll do just fine!" Naruto exclaimed, pulling her hand along as they made their way to the academy.

"Chibaka, stop it! Hinata knows how to walk." Sakura scolded, forcing him to release her. The Hyuuga heiress smiled gratefully, knowing that if that kept up any longer, she would have been dragged along.

The two girls leisurely made their way to the academy, ignoring Naruto's protests of going faster. Despite the slow pace, they reached the academy early and opted to stay at the playground.

"Hey, Sakura, Hina-hime, let's go meet everyone else!" Naruto said, dragging them along as he made his way to the lazy pineapple head and the chubby one they had seen so much in the park, lazing under a tree.

"Hello! I'm Naruto, and this is Hina-hi, I mean Hinata, and this is Sakura!" Naruto said, introducing himself. The lazy one just kept looking at the sky, while the chubby one sat up and looked at them.

"Hi there, I'm Chouji from the Akimichi clan, and the lazy bum is Shikamaru, of the Naras." The newly introduced Chouji said, offering his hand.

Naruto gladly shook it, smiling brightly. "You guys are new this year, right?" Sakura asked.

"Yeah. I guess you'll probably be in our class." Chouji answered.

Seeing the multitude of people, and possibly a golden chance for gossip gathering, the blonde haired, purple wearing girl walked up to the group.

"Hey there. I'm Ino. Yamanaka Ino." Ino introduced, taking out her hand.

"I'm Sakura Yuhi, nice to meet you!" Sakura said, shaking her hand.

"I'm Hyuuga Hinata, and this is my friend-" Hinata began.

"NARUTO UZUMAKI – FUTURE HOKAGE!" Naruto shouted, punching the air with a fist.

"Y'know any cute boys?" Ino said, as Naruto went off to chat with Chouji. He hated girl talk.

"Naw, I don't have much friends to be honest." Sakura replied.

"Oooh you got a thing for blondie over there?" Ino teased, her ever perceptive eyes noting how Hinata kept glancing at him. The Hyuuga heiress shrieked, hiding behind Sakura.

"You see over there? The really handsome, cool one with the raven hair. That's MY Sasuke Uchiha!" Ino said, holding her hands over her heart at the last bit.

"Hey, Hinata, why don't we go introduce ourselves." Sakura said, pulling the girl behind her. Ino led the way.

"Hi, I'm Sakura and this is Hin-"

"Hn. I don't need fangirls. Go away." Sasuke said coldly. Once they were at a safe distance, Sakura turned on Ino angrily.

"You call that stuck up bastard the love of your life?" Sakura said. From those few words, she knew what type he was.

"Hey! Don't call him that! He is a poor soul, in need of the caring hands of a woman to fix him..." Ino defended herself.

"Cut the crap. Seriously, look at him! He is an unsociable, arrogant bastard!" Sakura said, glaring at the girl.

"Well....he...I...he..." Ino stammered. She couldn't help but see the truth in Sakura's words.

"Look, Ino, if you really _do _like him, and you are not just a fangirl, then you well do what you came here to do. You will strengthen yourself and become a good Kunoichi! No offense, but people like you are why kunoichi have a bad name!" Sakura spat out.

"Well, if you're so strong, come get me!" Ino challenged angrily. Everything that her life revolved about, which was Sasuke Uchiha, was being proved wrong by this black haired harpy.

Just then, the bell rung, resulting in their little fight being broken up.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Hello everyone, I'm Iruka, and I'll be your teacher for the next four years." Iruka said, addressing his class.

Suddenly the door opened, revealing another Iruka. "What the...no I'M Iruka! Imposter!"

Another Iruka came out of the door, shouting, "What the...? I'm Iruka! Are these imposters or am I seeing things?"

Sakura and Hinata glared angrily at Naruto, who was concentrating. They threw a rubber at his face, resulting in him smiling sheepishly as he dispelled the henged clones.

The class laughed edgily, thinking it was some sort of introductory joke. Naruto snored lightly as Iruka began a speech on what it meant to be a ninja.

'_This is gonna be a long day...' _Sakura thought.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Mom, can you help me?" Sakura asked, interrupting Kurenai from her letter sending.

"Sure honey, give me a second." Kurenai replied as she finished writing the last letter. Sakura led her down to the garden, where she turned to her daughter.

"Well, you know I have my serpentine jabs style?" Sakura asked as Kurenai nodded her confirmation. "Well, you see, I've changed it." Sakura said. She got into her stance, which was sort of like that of the jyuken – her legs a metre apart, bent slightly inwards, with her hands, her left about 20 cm behind the right, formed flat palms, fingers faced forwards , ready to jab. However, this time, Kurenai noted that there was a slight blue glow on the tips of the fingers. Kurenai watched as Sakura performed several jabs and thrusts, Hebi joining in with several thrusts.

"So? What's wrong?" Kurenai asked.

"Well, I want to make it a genjutsu-type Taijutsu style by..." Sakura said, explaining the third step of her style.

"Interesting idea..." Kurenai said. Indeed, it was, and if it ever worked, she would probably learn it.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

*A Month Later*

"SASUKE-KUNNNN!!!" Ino screeched, holding onto the Uchiha's hand. Sasuke just happened to be in a really bad mood as that blonde loser had showed him up in a written test. He needed something to vent his frustration, and he did not like fangirls.

_SMACK_

Ino lay on the floor, whimpering slightly, holding her red cheek. "Get away from me, fangirl. You are a failure as a ninja – come back when a rabbit wouldn't beat you." He said, turning his back to her and walking away.

Several girls, the ones who naturally followed Sasuke, were disgusted. They rushed to help their arch-nemesis – actually, that was so five minutes ago. They sneered angrily towards the direction of the rapidly disappearing Uchiha.

That was the day that Sasuke lost his amazing reputation. You can't hit a gossip queen without it circulating around town with the speed of a cheetah.

*_Later that day*_

"What do you want?" Sakura asked coldly at the approaching figure of Ino.

"Well...I...I came to apologize for acting so stupidly. I don't know what I ever-"Ino explained, before Sakura gasped.

"Don't. Tell. Me. Sasuke. Did. That. To. You." Sakura said with gritted teeth, barely holding in her anger.

"N-N...Yes...He did...You see, I was walking along a corridor when I saw him..." Ino explained, as she recounted the whole situation. Sakura got angrier by the word, before she grabbed Ino's hand and told her to follow.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Yes? What is it Sakura and...I believe, Ino, daughter of Inoichi?" The Hokage asked as Ino nodded her head in confirmation.

"We're here to file a complaint!" Sakura said boldly as Hiruzen's eyebrows raised.

"Oh? About?" He asked.

"Sasuke Uchiha! He harassed Ino needlessly, and several girls bare witness!"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Sasuke grunted, putting down the scroll he was reading. How could he become a ninja strong enough to kill his brother if he couldn't even study jutsus?

Opening the door, he was surprised to find a chuunin messenger. _'Probably want to put the great Uchiha on a special training program...yes that's it...' _He thought, arrogantly smirking.

"By order of the fourth Hokage, Sasuke Uchiha is to be fined 5000 Ryo for physical harassment of Yamanaka Ino." The chuunin said, reading off the scroll.

"WHAT?" Sasuke shouted angrily, grabbing the scroll. "By order of the fourth Hokage, Sasuke Uchiha is to be fined 5000 Ryo ..." He muttered, reading it. "What is this crap? I'm a freakin Uchiha for god's sake, you can't do this to me!" He shouted.

"Failure to do so will result in harsher punishments." The chuunin said monotonously, only his eyes betraying annoyance.

Somewhere in the trees, Ino and Sakura sat, listening to the conversation. Their minds were made up – Sasuke was a no-go.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The following week, Ino received 5000 Ryo. She immediately called Sakura and they went to the shops – the shinobi shops.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Inoichi sat at the dining table, silently wondering when his daughter would came back. He was slightly peeved that she would spend 5000 Ryo on shopping. He expected her to come back, with huge bags filled with woman crap.

He was completely surprised when she came back wearing black fishnet trousers and a black fishnet shirt, made of steel strings that covered her whole body. On top of the fishnet trouser was loose black ninja pants with bandages tying them down at the ankle. She wore black vest on the fishnet shirt, along with black sweatbands on her wrists. Inoichi noted the fact that she had weights under the bandages.

She did have a bag, but unlike what Inoichi had expected, it contained Kunai, Shuriken and several jutsu scrolls and other shinobi tools. Inoichi then noticed why she changed so much – behind her newly improved daughter was the Mini Kurenai.

"Hello Inoichi-san, I'm Sakura Yuhi." Sakura said, bowing.

"What's with the new look pumpkin?" Inoichi said, to his daughter of course.

"After the incident with that Uchiha-teme, I decided I'd actually _try _to be a kunoichi! Which reminds me, I'm going to need extra extra extra training from now on. Every day, I want to train with you after the academy." Ino said boldly.

"O-Ok..."Inoichi replied as Ino went upstairs. Sakura was about to follow but, Inoichi stopped her.

"Thank you." He whispered quietly.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

**There we go. Filler , I know, but they Sakura can't randomly go from 7 year old to 13 year old genin.**


	5. Genin

Over the months, Ino and Sakura became best friends, eventually becoming part of the tightly knit group of Hinata, Naruto, Sakura and Ino. They trained together, sat together, played together, worked together ; they were all for one and one for all.

Ino had improved greatly, even though it was just beginning. She managed to learn several clan jutsu, aswell as increase her chakra capacity. She had also begun shaping up her Taijutsu skills. Her attitude had changed too ; to everyone's surprise, due to Hinata, Naruto and Sakura's distaste on the matter, Ino had become less of a gossip queen and much more respectful of people around her.

Before the four friends knew it, their first year had passed and they had a small holiday. They decided to begin with a party, inviting all their friends. They held it at a barbecue restaurant, called Konoha no Tabehoudai Sute-Kiya ( All you can eat Steak house of Konoha), which proved a big mistake.

Chouji walked in, practically drooling a trail as he sat next to Naruto. He was dragging Shikamaru behind him, who was vaguely annoyed. Kiba also came, not one to miss free food. Naruto had even managed to convince Shino to come.

A chef made their way towards them, pushing a trolley-type thing that was practically a cooker on meals. The best thing was that they cooked it infront of you, allowing you to choose how long you wanted your meal cook.

Everyone chose their meals, beginning with Ino and going round the table, finally ending on Chouji. He began to state his order, and was still at it five minutes later...The manager himself had to come to give a limit.

They all ate their food, chatting and joking as they did. Surprisingly, Chouji finished first, smacking his lips and leaning back with a happy, greasy smile. Everyone else soon finished after, and it became a full blown chat session, the girls turning away to talk about...whatever girls talk about, Kiba, Chouji and Naruto chatting, trying to get Shikamaru to join in. Shino thanked them, and left.

"So...Whaddya gonna do in the holiday?" Chouji asked.

"I'm going to train!" Naruto said, and despite the happy punch in the air, everyone could tell he was serious.

"Why...why do you train so hard?" Chouji asked.

"Yeah, whats the point? We're still academy students, mightaswell wait till we're genin till we train full-time." Kiba added.

"Troublesome." Shikamaru sighed.

"Well...I train to protect those I care about! Chouji, right now, if...your family or Shikamaru were in danger of death, and only you could save them, how would you feel if you were too week?" Naruto asked, staring at the overweight boy.

"...Bad...I...I guess..." Chouji said, thinking about what Naruto just said.

"Kiba! If...If your sister, Hana, and Tsume-san were tied up to a tree, along with Akamaru, but you were too weak to save them, how bad would it be?" Naruto said, turning to the dog boy.

"I...I'd have betrayed the pack..." Kiba replied, gulping loudly and for the first time ever, he sat in silence, musing about wht Naruto said.

"Shikamaru..." Naruto said, thinking. "I have no idea what motivates you....What if Chouji was dying? What if your family were being held hostage? What if your village was in danger? " Naruto asked to the lazy bum.

"It'd be...troublesome..." Shikamaru said, dismissing him externally, but internally thinking rapidly.

The same thought went through the three boys' heads as their eyes became determined.

'_I might just take my training up a notch.'_

Naruto, as if recognising this, said ," Why don't we all train together? Heck, Ino, Hinata, Sakura and I all train together!" He exclaimed as Kiba wolf whistled.

"Oooh you roped in quite a catch of chicks there, mate! Didn't know you were into harem!" Kiba exclaimed. Naruto blushed furiously, not noticing that the girls had heard what Kiba said, and had gotten the gist.

That day, everyone flinched as screams of pain came from Konoha's favourite steakhouse.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

_*The next day*_

Ino, Sakura, Hinata, Naruto, Shikamaru, Chouji, Kiba and Akamaru all arrived at one of the training fields at 5 am. They had gotten permission from the hokage, despite not being genin.

"I...how 'bout some friendly sparring matches!" Naruto suggested.

"Yeah sure! Ino – you're mine, " Sakura said, glaring evilly.

The two girls walked off, leaving the remaining five confused.

"Riiiggghhhttt....Anyway, how 'bout me and Hina-hime against you three?" Naruto said as Hinata blushed slightly.

'_Ow, he's so hooked and he doesn't even know it." _Chouji thought, while Kiba mutter quietly 'Daaaammmn he got it _bad._'

Seeing the other two boys' unresponsiveness, Shikamaru answered for them. "Sure. "

"We'll woop your ass! 'Eh Akamaru?" Kiba exclaimed as Akamaru barked in agreement. Hinata and Naruto immediately performed a perfect backwards summersault, landing a couple of metres away from the three boys, who had just slipped into their various fighting stances ; Shikamaru, doing nothing – Kiba crouched on all fours, while Chouji was bouncing lightly from foot to foot.

Kiba charged first, aiming to take Naruto out once and for all. He began with a spinning heel kick which was easily dodged, and followed it with several random punches littered all over the blonde's body. Naruto skilfully dodged them all, having been training for 6 years with a blood loving snake woman, he _needed _good evasion.

It continued like this for several minutes, Chouji and Shikamaru just watching as they assessed Naruto's abilities. Kiba was getting more and more frustrated as he didn't land a single hit. Annoyed, the Inuzuka jumped back, panting slightly.

To his chagrin, Naruto hadn't broken a sweat.

"Huh? That's all?" Naruto said, feigning surprise.

"Grrr...._Four legs technique!" _Kiba cried, spreading his arms and legs wider as he crouched closer to the ground, faint tendrils of chakra covering him. He then charged at Naruto with renewed ferocity and speed, seemingly randomly striking out on gut instinct in an almost feral manner. Naruto, albeit slightly harder pressed, dodged them all, to Kiba's utmost chagrin.

"Kiba, you can do better than that!" Naruto teased as Kiba continued to try and maul Naruto's guts out.

Shikamaru suddenly felt something jab his back, Chouji feeling the same thing.

"Now now," Hinata said, "Pay attention...I'm your enemy!" She said, shouting the last bit as she swiftly kick them both back. The two boys got to their feet, Chouji immediately rushing back at her as Shikamaru skirted to the sides to think of a strategy. Hinata twirled away from a jawbreaking punch, courtesy of Chouji, jabbing him several times in the chest as she did. Frustrated, the Akimichi boy blindly swung his fists, which were all evaded (and several little jabs inbetween).

"You'd be dead by now." Hinata said coldly.

" 'Kay that's enough everyone! Let's do some individual training! Kiba, I think you should work on your teamwork with Akamaru..."

They got to their various excercises, Naruto summoning several hundred clones and practicing a wind jutsu, while Hinata got to work on her water jutsus. Sakura went to a quiet corner and secretly practiced her Taijutsu, out of sight and out of mind. Shikamaru worked on a shadow jutsu called Shadow Sewing Technique, while Chouji spent his time trying to master the partial expansion jutsu. Ino practiced her mind techniques on several willing Naruto clones.

The days continued like this – they'd begin at about 5 am with a quick sparring session, often working in teams, and from then on they'd practice. Depending on energy levels, they might have another spar session, or just go straight to Ichiraku Ramen where they'd go full on the ramen.

It was one such day, after leaving Ichiraku ramen, that Ino was walking home alone. She was pondering her skills as a ninja when she felt someone's presence behind her.

"Ino!" Chouji said, crunching on some chips with Shikamaru close behind.

"What do you want?" Ino asked, eager to get home and have a shower.

"Troublesome. I figured out that this year, Chouji, you and I will be put on a team." Shikamaru explained, blunt and to the point.

He had Ino's interest, as she replied, "Mhm? And why do you say that?"

"Think about it – our respective fathers formed a team , you know the half famous Ino-Shika-Cho?"

"Yeah! My dad tells me stories of them fighting together!" Ino said.

"Well...we'll probably be put on teams together so they can mould us to be the next Ino-Shika-Cho, as much as I hate to admit it. We should practice our teamwork together, If only to be ready when we become genin."

Meanwhile, somewhere a mile or two back, Naruto spotted a certain bug user wearing a high collared coat and black glasses.

"Shino? Shino!" Naruto said, running towards the Kikai bug user.

"Do you require my assistance?" Shino said, not coldly, but not exactly brightly either.

"N-No..." Naruto said. He found himself faltering infront of this seemingly emotionless person. "I was wondering whether or not you'd join us for training? The holiday is nearly done, but until we're back at the academy, we train from 5am onwards everyday! C'mon!" Naruto said, trying to convince him.

"I am unsure whether our classmates would enjoy my presence." Shino replied monotonously.

Naruto took a moment to decipher the sentence, before saying, "Nonsense! I'll see you tomorrow morning!" Naruto said, rushing off.

Shino did actually arrive next morning.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The holiday soon finished, and the pupils of the academy had to return to the academy, regardless of whether they wanted to or not.

It was on the first day of the second year that Naruto started thinking about genin teams.

"Saku-neechan, Hina-hime, I just had an idea!" Naruto said, talking to the two girls walking with him.

"10th...August..." Sakura muttered, pretending to write in a book. "Naruto...had...good...idea..."

Everyone burst out laughing, before Naruto became serious again. "I thought that...Sakura, you be rookie of the year, Hinata be dead last and I'll be the best kunoichi! Wait...that doesn't work..." Naruto said, scratching his head sheepishly at the last comment.

"Wait, you're trying to get us into the same team by default?" Sakura said.

"I think I get it...the rookie of the year, the best kunoichi and the dead last get put onto one team, right?" Hinata asked.

"But...if I'm rookie of the year, I'll be best kunoichi too." Sakura informed.

"But...I know, you and Hinata, get the same marks! You both HAVE to get 100%!" Naruto said, while the other two girls smiled uneasily.

"Stupid Chibaka..." Sakura laughed, causing the blonde boy to growl.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

_*2 years later...well maybe a couple of weeks less...*_

"CHIBAKA! CHIBAKA!" Sakura said, knocking on the door of her adopted brother's room. "WAKE. UP!"

"I'm...I'm awake, I'm awake!" Naruto slurred from inside the room. "Whatsh the occashion?" He asked sleepily.

"GENIN EXAMS, BAKA!" Sakura screamed, a vein popping. They were supposed to be in the ninja academy in 5 minutes, and this _baka, _this complete and utter _baka _(And chibi no less!), was ASLEEP.

"Shit!" Naruto shouted, the door still closed.

"Language, young man!" Kurenai said, walking downstairs.

"Oki Kaa-san!" Naruto shouted as he opened the door, hopping on one foot and trying to slip on a boot.

10 minutes later, they arrived at the academy, just in time to line up with the rest of the students.

Everyone entered, picking random seats in their nervousness. One of the two senseis, Mizuki, immediately begun to give out a load of written exams.

Reading through it, both Hinata and Sakura had the same thoughts. _'What is the theory behind the Bunshin no Jutsu...piece 'a cake!' _They thought happily, pencils already scribbling away. Naruto then calculated how much he'd have to answer correctly to get 50% - just enough to pass, but be a dead last too!

Time flied, and before the genin knew it, the written exam was over.

"The next part will be your test on basic chakra control and ninjutsu. There will also be an additional third part, which is optional, but will get you extra marks. It is a Taijutsu exam. Anyone who wishes to participate will have to pass the ninjutsu part, and then tell us. Anyway...on with the exam." Iruka explained, before going into a room which was joined by a dull grey door at the front of the class.

"Akimichi, Chouji." Mizuki grunted, following his partner. Chouji nervously got up, wiping sweat from his forehead. Several minutes of tense silence passed, before Chouji walked out, wearing a shiny new headband.

He told Ino that she should go next, which she did. 5 minutes later, she came back without a headband, but she whispered that she wanted to do the extra Taijutsu test. Being one of the few to do the test, she had to line up at the back of the class. But not before she whispered in Sakura's ear...

"_It's your turn."_

Sakura immediately got up, catching a thumbs up from several people in the class. Opening the dull grey door, she entered an equally dull grey unused classroom. There was an empty space in front, where Sakura made her way too. Iruka and Mizuki sat on two desks, watching her keenly.

"Sakura Yuhi...Ok, please perform the transformation technique." Iruka stated.

"Henge!" Sakura muttered, performing the handsign. After the smoke cleared, a large 5 foot tall snake stood infront of them. Mizuki shrieked girlishly. Sakura dropped the henge.

"Good...Subsitution technique, please." Iruka said, chuckling at Mizuki's actions.

"Substitution technique!" Sakura shouted, swapping with places with Mizuki, who sat on the floor in a comical manner, looking puzzled.

"Pass." Sakura joked, trying to imitate Mizuki's deep voice. The white haired sensei growled, taking his place as Sakura took hers.

"Ok...Please perform the clone technique, 3-5 clones." Iruka said, ticking somewhere on his clipboard.

"Clone technique!" Sakura said as 4 perfect replicas shimmered into existent.

'_Odd...shimmer? Maybe it is her affinity with genjutsus...' _Iruka thought silently, before asking Sakura to leave and get Kiba.

Half an hour later, Shikamaru, Shino and Chouji, along with about 9 more unremarkable students, proudly wore their headbands, sitting at their desks. At the back of the class, lined up was Sakura, Hinata, Naruto, Ino, Kiba & Sasuke, awaiting the Taijutsu exam.

The whole class was lead outside, most being viewers, while 6 being participators.

"Ok, here are the rules ; no weapons, no permanently maiming/crippling jutsu or any killing jutsu. You will be set an opponent, and you are to fight. When I say stop, that means _stop. _Any questions? No? Ok...first up, Sasuke vs. Kiba!" Iruka explained, shouting the last bit. Everyone cheered as the two opponents entered the predesignated ring.

"You might aswell resign now, mutt. You are no match for an Uchiha, the elite of the elite." Sasuke said, smirking arrogantly. To his, albeit not shown, chagrin, the crowd booed at this statement. Several cheers of "Get that arrogant prick, Kiba!" were shouted, or something along the same lines.

Growling slightly, Kiba begun the fight before the go was sounded. "_Man beast clone!" _Kiba shouted as Akamaru morphed into a, albeit slightly more feral, exact replica of Kiba. _"Dual twisting fang!" _He shouted, both Kiba and Akamaru jumping into the air and blurring into a rapidly spinning drill, twisting around each other as they attacked Sasuke. Said Uchiha just managed to dodge in time, and the Inuzuka and his dog, unable to stop the momentum, came crashing into the ground. They both recovered quickly, skidding on their hands and feet.

"_Four legged technique!" _Kiba shouted, crouching lower as tendrils of chakra swirled slightly around him. "C'mon Akamaru!" Kiba shouted, charging towards his opponent, his dog barking in agreement. Sasuke found himself having to dodge a fierce barrage of kicks, swipes and punches. Several hit, but the ferocious barrage was so fast, the Uchiha couldn't react. It must've been that dumb six legged...or whatever, jutsu.

Sasuke became increasingly frustrated as he rolled away from another axe kick, while Kiba was laughing in delight. "_Dual twisting fang!" _Kiba cried for the second time that match. The familiar weightless dizzy sensation set in as the two partners, dog-nin and nin-dog, became rapidly spinning blurs.

"_Grand Fireball Technique_!" Sasuke screamed, executing several handseals. Unable to stop themselves, Kiba and Akamaru drilled straight into the huge fireball that was rapidly growing. Everyone gasped.

"Sasuke, you have failed this test from using a jutsu which has the potential to kill!" Iruka said angrily, rushing the charred and burning boy. Chouji and Shikamaru offered to take Kiba to the hospital, as Sasuke's anger grew.

"WHAT? IT ISN'T MY FAULT HE'S SO WEAK HE CAN'T STAND SOME FIRE!" Sasuke screamed. "YOU CAN'T DO THIS TO ME! I'M AN _UCHIHA!_"

"Sasuke, refrain from shouting or you will be failed for the whole test." Iruka said coldly. Sasuke grunted slightly, the anger evident in his eyes, but he shut up and turned around, leaving.

"Next...Hinata vs. Naruto!" Iruka said, to a full blown round of cheers. They had accumulated a small crowd by now.

"Hinata...Let's give it are all, eh?" Naruto asked, playfully punching her shoulder.

"I wasn't planning on giving any less, Naruto-kun!" Hinata said.

"Begin!" Iruka shouted.

Hinata immediately moved in with several graceful thrusts and jabs, which Naruto easily dodged by rolling away. Before he got up, the blond boy sweep kicked Hinata's leg, immediately jumping up with a knee aimed at her face. She dodged the both, returning the favour with a 360degree double roundhouse kick, followed by a sweep kick at the feet. Naruto bent his back backwards, until his hands were touching the floor to dodge the first bit, but when the sweep kick came, he leaned his body backwards, standing solely on his hand as he executed a handstand kick and backflipped from the stand to a standing position.

As a result, Hinata was hit on the chin and sent flying in the air several metres, before gravity seized her and she flew, head first, unceremoniously onto the ground. She managed to flip at the last second, landing with both feet and one hand , skidding slightly.

"_Water release: Beast clones!" _She screamed her original jutsu, executing several handsigns. Water from a nearby pond flew towards her, morphing as it did. The water reached her, and everyone watched in awe as a lion, a snake, a gorilla and what looked like a pterodactyl formed from the water. Hinata herself was holding her hands together, focusing furiously. Later in life, it would become second nature to control them as she fought, but for now, she still had to work on it.

The pterodactyl attacked first, flying towards Naruto at break neck speeds attempting to nip at his ears. Naruto dodged as the lion charged, followed closely by the snake and the gorilla, all trying to maul his guts out. He dodged them all, ducking the hawk-like sweeps of the pterodactyl.

"Shadow clone technique!" Naruto shouted, making 5 clones – 2 Narutos for each of the beasts, which _weren't _flying.

Immediately, the clones attacked. Although they got hit plenty of times, each time the beasts got hit, the water would just reform.

It was, to put it plainly, fucking, annoying, in Naruto's opinion.

"Lightning Release: Lightning bullet!" Naruto said, performing the handseals for the recently learnt C-Rank jutsu, compliments of Anko. The lion infront of him was hit by a swiftly moving yellow bolt of electricity, causing it to stop moving for a second and shake uncontrollably, before it exploded in a fine spray of droplets.

The other clones followed suit, one even managing to get that goddamned pterodactyl. Once they were all puddles of water in the floor, Hinata's figure slumped slightly, exhausted. Naruto made his way towards her, laying his hand on her shoulder.

"You ok?" Naruto asked tentatively.

"Yes, but you won't be!" Hinata shouted, her head cocking upwards, revealing her Byakugan active. Several jabs later, Naruto lay on the floor exhausted, before disappearing in a puff of smoke.

"What? Shadow clone...so where..." Hinata mused outloud.

"HYAAA!" Naruto screamed dramatically. Hinata didn't have time to turn around as Naruto exploited her one blind spot with an axe kick. She was sent flying, and so the match was declared in Naruto's favour.

"Sakura Yuhi vs. Ino Yamanaka...BEGIN!"

Ino immediately gracefully cartwheeled towards Sakura, merging it into an easily dodged kick. She landed crouching on all four, and immediately got up spinning, heel kick Sakura, who ducked it. She continued by spinning and crouching again, aiming to sweep her friend of her feet. Sakura jumped ever so slightly, jabbing at Ino. Said Yamanaka was surprised when one small jab at her shoulder sent her flying several metres.

"You know how I push the chakra into the body to disrupt organs and chakra flow?" Sakura asked, ever so slightly smug. "I changed it...on a whim, I decided to try and release it at the _last _second, to make it extremely powerful."

Sarutobi, who had been watching from his office with his Telescope Technique, gasped. On relative theory, Sakura had discovered exactly Tsunade's methods that earned her the legendary strength that she was known for. Well...that's a lie, she's probably better known for sucking so bad at Gambling, hence the nickname "Legendary Sucker".

Sakura preceded to send lightning fast jabs at Ino, tossing her around like a rag doll until the end was signalled.

"Sakura is the winner. Sakura, Kiba, Ino, Naruto, Hinata and...Sasuke..." Iruka announced, his eyes visibly darkening at the last bit. "You've all passed the genin exam, with pretty good marks...with the exception of you Naruto." Iruka said, giving a knowing glare as if he knew their plan. Naruto paled, gulping loudly.

"Those of you who are now genin, meet up in the academy, room 208 at 9 AM in 3 days time."

Naruto proudly put his hitae-ita on his forehead, Sakura copied the motion while Hinata safely tied hers on her neck.

They were _official _ninja!

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

**There we go...As you can see, the earlier events (Haruno Clan Capture) with Sakura Haruno effects most of the rookie nine.**


	6. The Bell Test

The various genin made their way to their seats, Iruka in front. They yawned boredly as he began the day with a lecture on what it meant to be a ninja. As Shikamaru would put it, troublesome...

"And, now for the teams." Iruka announced, drawing everyone's attention. There were already a couple of genin teams out there, so it started at around team 5.

"Team 7 – Haruno Sakura..." Iruka said.

'Oooh I wonder who I'm with!' She thought excitedly.

"Uchiha Sasuke..." He continued, watching as Sakura's face drooped.

'_SHIT!' _Sakura cursed, in her head of course.

'_Aww maaan! I wanted to be on Sakura's team! At least I have a shot at getting into Hinata's...' _Naruto thought sadly.

"And Uzumaki Naruto. Hatake Kakashi jounin sensei." Iruka finished, smiling slightly as Naruto burst out in cheers. Hinata looked extremely sad.

'I...I wish I was with Naruto-kun...' She thought sadly.

"Team 8 – Inuzuka Kiba, Aburame Shino and Hyuuga Hinata. Yuhi Kurenai shall be your jounin sensei." Iruka announced.

'_Tracking or recon team, I guess. Kiba with his dog, and his nose, me with my eyes and Shino with his bugs.'_ Hinata thought. It could've been worse...

"Team 10 – Nara Shikamaru, Akimichi Chouji and Yamanaka Ino. Your jounin sensei will be...Sarutobi Asuma!." Iruka was slightly worried as he saw the knowing glances shared between the three.

"Your jounin senseis will arrive soon. Wait here until then!"

Almost immediately, Sakura's adoptive mother and team 8's sensei walked in, and everyone immediately noticed the similarity between the two, despite the colour theme change and the slightly larger forehead on Sakura's part.

"Team 8, you have five minutes to get to training ground 8, move it!" She said, disappearing in a puff of smoke. Hinata used the recently learned shunshin to appear a split second after her, while Shino began running at a steady, calculated pace. Kiba just went all for it, Akamaru barking behind him.

A black haired, cigarette smoking jounin walked in, albeit in a lazy manner. He didn't even have to call out before the ever perceptive Shikamaru had motioned for them to go. That left team 7 alone, Sasuke being the ever grumpy brood, while Sakura and Naruto chatted away.

2 hours later, the three soon to be team mates were extremely grumpy, and were showing it in their own ways. Sasuke was broodier than usual, Naruto even more hyperactive, and Sakura slightly withdrawn. Just as the three 12 year old thought they couldn't take it, the door creaked. Everyone watched in apprehension as a bored looking jounin walked in, reading a porno book, headband covering his left eye. His gravity defying silver hair stuck up in a spiky frenzy, while a mask covered the lower part of his face.

"You'll pay for being late!" Sakura screeched, though quietly. "And for reading that...smut in front of us!"

"Oh? And how will I... 'pay'?" He asked, amused.

"Oh, I won't be doing anything..." Sakura said, grinning evilly.

"Kurenai-san will!" Naruto said cheerfully. The two recently graduated genin watched in satisfaction as the colour drained from the copy-nin's face. The genjutsu mistress, better known as the ice queen, was known for her stunning looks, shapely curves, singular (relationship wise) status and , most of all, her hate of perverts. One could only imagine the horrors inflicted on anyone who tried to corrupt her precious daughter...Kakashi shuddered.

"My first impression...I hate you." Kakashi retorted. "Now, meet me up on the roof." He said, before disappearing with a puff of smoke and a slight swirl of winds, coupled with floating leaves. Naruto followed suit, having learnt the shunshin with Hinata and Sakura. However, to everyone's surprise (well, to everyone's surprise 3 weeks prior...), when Sakura shunshined, there was no puff of smoke, swirling leaves or slight winds...just a shimmer, then a slight glow, and bye bye Sakura, hello new destination.

Sasuke grunted angrily. How could these people know such a jutsu, if he, the almighty Uchiha did not?

Kakashi's thoughts, unfortunately, were on similar thoughts when the two soon to be genin shunshined a split second after him. It probably had something to do with Kurenai, aswell as possibly Anko, seeing as the genjutsu mistress had adopted the mini-ice queen early on, aswell as the demon boy several years after that.

Nevertheless, after 5 minutes of sweat and dirt, Sasuke made it up there, completing the team.

"Right...now, what do we do?" Kakashi mused out loud.

"What do you mean what do we do? YOU'RE THE SENSEI!" Naruto shouted.

"Hmph. For a team, it is important to know as much about your team mates as possible to promote teamwork. Be it their choice of weapon, their elemental affinities, or their favourite colours. You need to know your team mates better than you know yourself! You should be able to fill each others weaknesses...Anyway, lets introduce ourselves. Uh...I guess...Names, likes, dislikes, hobbies and goals." Kakashi explained.

"You start." Sakura said bluntly.

"Fine..." the silver haired teacher replied. "I'm Hatake Kakashi, I like alot of things, I dislike alot of things aswell, I have alot of hobbies and my goals are none of your business. Your turn pinky."

"I'm Sakura Yuhi, I like training, genjutsu and decent people, I dislike stuck up people, perverts and annoying fangirls who give Kunoichi a bad name. My hobby is to train with my best friends, Naruto-kun and Hinata-chan, and my dream is to become a, not just capable, but someday kage level kunoichi. My idol is Tsunade, the legendary slug sannin."

"I'm....UZUMAKI NARUTO! I like training, helping friends, and ramen, I dislike stuck up people, people who are bastards and call me demon," Naruto said, causing the jounin to flinch. "And ramen haters. Oh, and I don't like Uchihatards, but there aren't much left since the duck-butt soiled the great Uchiha name by striking a girl." The blonde boy said plainly, causing the Uchiha to growl angrily. "My hobby is training and eating ramen with my friends, and my dream is to become Hokage, but my goal is to become strong enough to protect all my friends, and so the villagers acknowledge me for a powerful shinobi!"

"Sasuke Uchiha, I don't like much, I dislike alot, and I have no dream. My ambition is to kill a certain man, and to revive the Uchiha clan."

"One is enough..." Sakura groaned quietly, gaining a growl, a small chuckle and full blown unmanly giggling from Naruto.

"Ok, you guys have the rest of the day off, tomorrow meet at training ground seven at 5 am. Oh, and I suggest you don't eat anything, or to put it plainly, you'll puke." And with that, the copy nin disappeared.

Not wanting to stay a minute longer with the emo-princess, Sakura and Naruto jumped off the roof, cushioning their landings with some chakra. They quickly reached their home, Kurenai reaching just a few minutes afterwards.

"Mom! Kakashi is a lazy pervert!" Sakura complained angrily.

"And a bastard!" Naruto added.

"Language, young man, even though I totally agree." Kurenai giggled. "How did it go?"

"Well, I'm with Sakura, Woohoo! But, I got stuck with emo-hime-" Naruto blurted.

"Princess emo?" Kurenai asked in mild amusement.

"Sasuke Uchiha." Sakura deadpanned, before bursting out laughing.

"Anyways, we're team 7 with me, Sakura-neesan, emo-hime and ero-sensei. (Erotic Sensei/Teacher)" Kurenai raised her eyebrows at the odd naming. "We met on the roof and introduced ourselves, but ero-sensei only told us his name. Tomorrow we're meeting at 5 am for some sort of survival test, and he told us not to eat, or we'll puke!" Naruto finished enthusiastically.

"Not really," Sakura said, drawing their attention, "He _suggested _we don't eat, so he probably just said that to make us hungry. I don't know, but in my opinion, we should still eat, but nothing too large incase what he said was true ; just something that'll give us nutrients, like, uh, ration bars." The raven haired mini-kurenai summed up.

"Good assessment, now who's up for training?" Kurenai asked enthusiastically, and she met equally enthusiastic replies.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

*Training ground seven, 5:00 am.*

"Greetings Uchiha-san," Sakura said with cold indifference. She hated the boy , with a passion. He grunted in response as the two newcomers started scurrying around.

The raven-haired Uchiha tried to guess what they were doing, but it eluded him, so he finally gave up, shouting out to no-one imparticular, "What are you up to?"

Immediately, a pale pink and black clad blur made her way towards the emo, sitting next to him comfortably. "I'm guessing, since it is survival, that we'll have to work together. We're setting up traps, because my mom hinted that we'll probably be up against someone in some sort of fight. I think it is Kakashi sensei, but who am I to tell? Anyway, we're going to have to work together, you in?"

"Hn." Sasuke grunted. "I don't need the help of a weakling harpy such as yourself, I am an almight Uchiha. Uchihas don't need whores to beat-"

The boy never got to finish the sentence as he found himself hoisted up against the tree, held by the neck by a blonde haired boy who was growling ferally, canines showing and eyes narrowed dangerously.

"Look you no good filth bag!" Naruto growled. "You can act all superior, you can insult me, you can degrade me, but never, _ever _insult or harm in _any _way my friends, family or comrades or you will be castrated before you can say 'Shit'. _**Got it?**_" the boy growled, unconsciously adding demonic chakra to the last part to enhance the feral, scary-ness.

The Uchiha, who was mentally shitting his pants, nodded, before being dropped down.

"We don't like you..." Naruto growled.

"And you don't like us..." Sakura whispered, seemingly from nowhere (go _Demonic Illusions: Dissapearance_!).

"But..." They both growled.

"We've got to work as a team..." Naruto snarled ferally.

"Whether you like it or not..." Sakura whispered, almost ghostlike in the breeze.

"So, quit complaining..." The blonde growled, getting closer.

"Swallow your pride..." Sakura said.

"AND WORK WITH US!" They both shouted dramatically as Kakashi walked in.

'Interesting...' he thought.

"Alright, break it up..." Kakashi murmured, pulling Naruto back and eying the recently reappeared Sakura.

The three genin stood to attention, each of them growling slightly from anger, though Sakura hid it best.

"Right...now for the _real _genin test, to see if you have what it makes to survive as a fully fledged wet behind the ears ninja of the hidden leaf village!" Kakashi finished dramatically, only to receive three, bored looking stares. "Ahem, anyway, your task is to get a bell off me..." He said simply, holding up two plain copper bells attached to red ribbons.

"But there are only two..." Sakura muttered, her mind whirring.

"Yes, the one who fails ends up tied to a tree, while the other two get to eat those bento lunch boxes." He said, pointing to the two, red boxes. He frowned at the lack of reaction; only the Uchiha's stomach growled, no matter how much he coughed to hide it. "And you better come with the intent to kill, or you won't stand a chance. And...begin!"

To his satisfaction, the three of them immediately jumped back, hiding in bushes etc. To his surprise, however, the Uchiha was the worse at hiding, and even though he was an ex-ANBU jounin, he had trouble finding the other two, Naruto's general deviousness and Sakura's genjutsu making them hard to find. He pulled out his porn book to pass the time when he heard a disruption in the air. He leaned back, dodging Sasuke's three shuriken, and the follow up kunais. He was immediately engaged in a Taijutsu match that was, admittedly, impressive for a genin. Rookie chuunin level, maybe.

However, despite the well aimed and timed flurry of fists and feet, the Uchiha couldn't land a hit, frustrating him as he thought it was in his blood to beat him, and he mentioned it quite a few times while his two team mates watched in disdain, long ago having figured out the meaning of the test. Kakashi immediately knew that the Uchiha would be a problem on the teamwork side of things, and his pride could get him into sticky situations, not to mention the arrogance...oh don't get anyone started on the arrogance...

Anyway, the result was a certain raven haired Uchiha stuck in the ground, only his head out as he struggled to be free.

That was when the plan begun.

Kakashi heard the rustling as Naruto and Sakura jumped out of the tree, one aiming low while the other aimed high. Both were dodged as the two re-entered the fight. A minute or so later, dodging a heel kick, Kakashi punched Naruto in the gut. It dispersed in a puff of smoke.

'_Shadow clone...SHIT!'_

A gale of wind suddenly pushed him backwards, vaguely noticing the orange clad boy some metres away with the ram sign held up. The jounin unknowingly stepped on a release seal, sending a couple of hundred senbon at him. He jumped to the side, only to meet several Narutos who engaged him in combat. Then another trap was triggered, his only warning being a faint shout of 'Kai!'.

The hundred kunai or so hit the clones, dispelling them immediately. Just then, another barrage of throwing daggers flew.

_Meanwhile _

"Look Sasuke, whether you want to admit it or not, you got your ass handed to you." The Naruto clone whispered, though Sasuke didn't know it was a clone.

"Hn. I don't need to work with weaklings like you, you will just bring me down!" Sasuke complained, only to find himself held against a tree.

"Look you no good emo princess, we need to work as a _team_!"

And so Naruto managed to convince the Uchiha to work as a team and to go with their plan, albeit grudgingly.

The blonde saw his shadow clone go, and saw Sakura's signal, so he executed the handseals and shouted. "_Wind Release : Gale!"_ The air stirred, barraging against the jounin, forcing him onto trap, sending hundreds of senbon at him. On cue, another trap, followed by another trap was executed, kunai and throwing knives being thrown respectively.

Kakashi managed to force chakra to his feet and jump over it all, but he found himself trapped, again.

"_Wind Release: Pressurized Bullet!_" Naruto shouted, sending several of them up to Kakashi.

"_Fire Release : Grand Fireball !_" Sasuke shouted, aiming it to where Kakashi would've landed. Unfortunately, the jounin used chakra to manipulate the wind, blowing him away from the gale. However, as soon as he landed, he heard a shout of _'Serpent techniques : Snake Drill!' _. From behind him came two, gatsuga like blurry drills, one green, one pale pink with black edges. The jounin jumped back several times consecutively, only to find Sasuke and Naruto behind him, giving him a real workout. Sasuke worked behind Kakashi, mainly kicking high, while Naruto had his knuckle dusters out,spikes enlarged, getting carried away from the adrenaline.

For some reason, there was also a third set of punches and hits that Kakashi had no idea where it was coming from. **(A/N, I know it is a genjutsu from Sakura, and Kakashi should be able to detect it, but all shall be cleared...)** They fought for about a minute before they all jumped back and Sakura re-appeared, holding two bells.

"How..." Kakashi mused, looking at the bells on his waist. He expelled some chakra, shouting "Kai!" and they immediately disappeared.

'_That was amazing, at least chuunin level team work, but I have a feeling the mini-kurenai was the one behind it all' _Kakashi thought, but nevertheless, the fact that they all listened to her, merited a pass in itself, but he decided to play with their minds.

"I never thought I'd say this, but Sasuke, you are getting tied to the tree."

"WHAT? I...I'm an UCHIHA! You ca-"

"In a real mission your arrogance and anti-teamwork attitude could've gotten you killed. Anyway, after lunch I'll give you another try."

5 minutes later, Sasuke was tied up to a tree, while Naruto and Sakura ate their bentos infront of him.

"If you feed him, you FAIL." Kakashi warned dramatically, before disappearing.

They ate in silence, Sasuke's stomach often disrupting the silence. The Uchiha suddenly found a piece of food infront of his mouth, Sakura holding it up with Naruto ready for more.

He was about to complain, when Sakura said, "Look, teams stick together, if you are hungry and your body is weak from lack of nutrients, you'll be a hindrance."

Sasuke couldn't deny the logic, so he slowly chewed on the pastry. Naruto gave him a small one next, when suddenly, Kakashi appeared in dark clouds and a flash of lightning. It always worked, seeing as it was supposed to be dramatic. Minor genjutsus make all the difference...unless...

"Kai!" Sakura shouted, dispelling it. "What do you want?" She asked boldly, ready for the consequences.

"I told you what would happen if you feed him..." He said dramatically, though without the genjutsu it kind of ruined it.

"He's our teammate, whether I like it or not, which I don't!" Naruto shouted.

"What he said, and if we go to fight with him weakened from lack of food, he will be a hindrance."

"You..." Kakashi said, watching as everyone waited for the inevitable. "Pass!"

"HUH?" All three asked.

"You pass! The point, as Sakura seemed to notice, was teamwork. Your performance at the first part was enough to pass you, but I wanted to test you..."

"You mean mess with our minds!" Naruto pointed out angrily.

"Anyway, I have a saying. 'Those who abandon the rules are trash, but those who abandon their friends are worse than trash.' Anyway, tomorrow you have free, after tomorrow you can begin missions...meet here at 7, cya!" He said before disappearing.

"C'mon, let's go Naruto." Sakura said, dragging her friend along as the Uchiha went home to train, brood, train, more brooding and did I mention training?

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Sorry for the long wait, not that anyone is probably reading this right now. Couldn't update 


	7. Missions

"Sakura at point A, over."

"Naruto at point C, over."

Sasuke grumbled incoherently to himself. How could those weaklings have got to their positions first? It was frustrating, and Naruto just had to rub it in.

After 30 seconds of silence, Sasuke finally reported into his ear mic, panting slightly. "Sasuke at point B, over."

"You're slow! Under." Naruto complained, and it was bad enough, but Kakashi decided to give his two cents.

"He's right..." The one eyed jounin muttered in his microphone. "Commence plan Illusions, over!"

"Hai! Over." Sakura said. She gathered chakra before muttering, _'Demonic Illusions : Nightmare.'_

Sakura immediately knew that the poor cat was feeling itself being returned to his owner, and no doubtly being squeezed by her. It began clawing the air around it frantically, when Sakura said. "Phase one, complete! Phase two commence. Over!"

The blonde barrelled in, catching the cat as it rolled and holding it from an arm's length, by the fur on its neck. He screeched, shaking it up and down , which only resulted in more scratching. When Sakura took it, the cat, or hell incarnate in Naruto's opinion, it purred in content, snuggling up to her meagre breasts. Scary.

"Phase two complete," Naruto snarled. "Mission 'Devil Retrieval' complete. Over."

This was their...second mission on their 7th day of missioning. It was all chores; weeding gardens, deliveries, animal rescuing, building etc. The only training they really got in was what they did themselves, and it was annoying, as no matter what Sakura and Naruto tried, they couldn't get the lazy teacher to train.

Otherwise, it was daily life. Wake up, eat, missions, train, missions, train, train, train, eat, sleep. Naturally, Naruto got bored.

_*A week later*_

Sakura smirked, laughing internally at Naruto's evil plan. Normally, she didn't agree with pranks, but the other two member of their team were terribly annoying in their own ways. Even Kurenai had joined in, after hearing dreadful stories of the copy-nins...lateness problem. Sakura was especially pissed off about Kakashi's chronic tardiness, and she had spent the week searching around. She managed to discover that Kakashi spent the two hours or so of lateness staring at the memorial stone absently, according to several jounin, remembering past events involving his old team.

She knew it must be hard, and she had naturally guessed that her sensei blamed himself for his teammate's, who she found out to be Obito Uchiha, death. However, if the man didn't let go of the past then he would fail his team, which could ultimately lead to their deaths if he didn't train them properly.

And so we find Sakura, tailing Kakashi at 5 in the morning, using a disappearance genjutsu, her snake slithering silently besides her, also disguised. He headed towards the memorial stone, kneeling on his knees after bowing. He then just stared absently. Sakura would feel guilty later, but instead she used a technique, which used chakra to 'drift' one's voice across the wind. She expelled the chakra, and Kakashi froze, sitting bolt upright as he heard something whispering.

'_At the memorial stone again, are we Kakashi?'_

He whipped around, looking for the intruder.

'_Let go of your past! How would Obito feel if you were abandoning your students...'_

His visible eye widened , but he was too startled to think of using his sharingan.

'_You said it yourself. Those who abandon the rules are trash...but those who abandon friends are worse than trash...'_

It seemed to be coming from his left, so he whipped around, staring intently.

'_What if your students were fighting...dying...right now, but they could've been saved had you not been two hours late...'_

He seemed to shrink, and suddenly the shinobi seemed to be so much older.

'_Sasuke could be calling your name right now as he bleeds to death. Think about it...let go of your past.'_

Sakura smirked in victory as he nodded thoroughly to the air, before taking off. She then performed several body substitutions in a row until she got to training ground seven before her mentor.

Kakashi would walk in to find a thoroughly surprised Sasuke and Sakura, aswell as a slightly suspicious Naruto. The blonde immediately pulled out three kunai, throwing them at his mentor.

"Who are you? Kakashi is _NEVER _early!" He growled.

'_Kami-sama, have I been that bad?'_ Kakashi thought sadly.

"Let's do some training."

"WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT'VE YOU DONE TO KAKASHI-SENSEI!?!?!" Naruto shouted.

It was a simple, but effective plan. Sakura gets things going, while Naruto points out how he always failed the team, sending the guy on the guilt trip. If that didn't work, Kurenai was to use a genjutsu, showing Kakashi a battlefield next time he comes late. He would've seen Sakura hanging off the tree, her legs sawn off and a huge gash on her chest, with two Rock ninjas lying next to her. Sasuke would be dead on the floor, body so mutilated it would be barely recognisable, with 5 Rock shinobi lying dead next to him. Then Naruto would've come up to the jounin, one arm cut off and holding it with the other. He would've blamed it on him, saying that Kakashi should've come early and they wouldn't have died, then he'd fall down dead infront of him.

Hopefully, she wouldn't have to use that genjutsu.

"Ok, since I've been so...irresponsible, I'm teaching you all a new jutsu to make it up to you."

"EXCELLENT, DATTABEYO! YOU RULE KAKASHI SENSEI!" Naruto shouted, while Sasuke decided it was due time, and Sakura smiled, albeit slightly smugly.

"First of all, I want to find out your elemental affinities so I can choose the jutsu most suited for you."

"Why would that matter?" Naruto asked, frowning, before he jumped up and down maniacally. "I WANT FIRE! MAKE THINGS BURN....BURN...BURN!!!" He shouted, only shutting up with a quick smack to the head, courtesy of Sakura.

"There are five main elements; Water, Wind, Fire, Earth and Lightning, or you can call it electricity."

"What about Shodai's Mokuton?" Sakura interrupted.

"That actually is a mixture of water and earth elements, unique only to himself. Anyway, peoples jutsus work better with their elements."

"I don't get it!" Naruto whined.

"I think a practical is in order..." Kakashi sighed, before making some space. "I'm going to do two jutsus; one wind, one lightning. My main affinity is lightning. Both of these jutsus are essentially the same, just with a different element. Here goes..._Wind Release : Air Bullet!_" He shouted, pushing his palms forward to displace the air, then using chakra to compress the moving air into a bullet, which was the size of a rugby ball. It crashed into a tree, making a 10 inch deep marking. _"Lightning Release : Electricity Bullet"_, He shouted after making more handseals. He clicked his fingers, making a spark, which soon turned into a bullet of electricity double the size of the wind bullet which zapped outwards, leaving a trail of lightning yellow electricity.

"Cool I know that air one!"

"Wow..." Sakura said.

"Anyway, the thing is I used the same amount of chakra for both. Since lightning is my main element, I can wield it better and produce better results; I use half the chakra that I'd need for its wind's counterpart to make the same sized bullet. Anyway, enough explanations, everyone take one of these..." Kakashi finished, pulling out four, plain looking small square papers out of his weapon's pouch faster than the eye could see.

"These are chakra papers, they test your chakra. All you do is run some chakra through it and the paper's reaction will show. For example..." The jounin took one of the papers from the pile with his left hand, holding it up. He let the chakra loose and it crumpled up. "That shows lightning. Sasuke-kun, you go first."

Sasuke was handed a paper and it immediately burst into flames. "Cool, emo-teme has fire! What about me?" Naruto asked, ignoring the raven boy's glare.

"Ahh, yes, fire release. Fire release is offensive, envolving super heating one's chakra and usually expelling it from one's mouth. The Uchiha clan were among the best fire chakra manipulators. Anyway, Naruto, here."

Naruto eagerly snatched the paper, his face scrunched in mock concentration as he lets his chakra flow. With a ripping sound, the paper cut in half.

"Wind." Kakashi said plainly.

"Aww! That's weak, I want something cool like fire!" Naruto complained.

"Now now Naruto, wind is extremely versatile. It can cut through almost anything, as it involves cutting your chakra in half and grinding it against each other to make extra sharp wind. It is excellent for close and mid ranged combat, and can be offensive, supplementary or defensive. I'll introduce you to a friend of mine who may show you some stuff. Now, Sakura. I'm guessing you're either water or earth, but that is just a calculated guess. Go on!" He said, handing her the last paper.

She sent chakra through it and ...

...it shimmered, then disappeared.

Kakashi gaped, while Naruto shouted compliments a mite too loud in her opinion. Sasuke just glared darkly.

"I'm...I'm not sure...but, I guess...I think that you have some sort of affinity for...genjutsu." Kakashi said, his brain whirling. "Tell me, did genjutsus seem to come naturally to you?" Kakashi asked knowingly, pointing at her snake, which was the size of a horse, disguised as a tree in the distance. Sakura chuckled nervously. "Anyway, we'll go see the hokage later to ask him about it, but for now, let me teach you some new jutsus. Hmm....Sasuke-kun...fire..." Kakashi mused. "Perfect! This is a High B/ Low A ranked jutsu, which you may find hard. It's called the fire whip...here..." Kakashi executed some lazy handseals, before pulling out a kunai and hitting it against another to make a spark. The small spark grew until it was fire, which extended outwards to make a whip like, slithery jet of fire. "_Fire Release : Flame Whip_." Kakashi pulled his kunai back, to which the whip was attached, before slamming the fire against a tree. An 8 inch deep gash appeared, burning, which slowly went outwards.

"Excellent!" The Uchiha said, displaying a rare bit of emotion as he took a scroll of Kakashi and began to read.

"Now Naruto, this one can be potentially harmless, or deadly. It can be close ranged, to long ranged (although long ranged requires better chakra control). It depends on how much chakra you put in, and how you shape it. This jutsu is called _Wind Release : Air Slicer_. Here, let me show you." Kakashi said, performing 7 handsigns and focusing his chakra. A slight glow emanated from his hand as the wind picked up around it, growing until there was a barely visible blade of air, about 5 foot long, attached to his hand.

"That's boring!" Naruto complained, before gaping. The reason? Kakashi had just cut a tree, exactly in half, using said air blade. "WICKED!" Naruto shouted, "GIMME GIMME GIMME!" Naruto beg-shouted, grappling Kakashi to get the scroll. He ran off, hiding behind a tree.

"Now...Sakura, I'm not sure what to do with you. I could teach you a genjutsu..."

"If it isn't a bother Kakashi-sensei, do you have any medical jutsu? I've studied human biology and the body, but I only know the Mystical Palm technique." Sakura asked.

"Oh? Show me." Kakashi ordered, before cutting his palm and holding it out to Sakura. She winced slightly, before performing some handseals. She stretched her arms outwards, putting her palms side by side as a soft green glow emanated from them. The cut began to seal itself, the skin sizzling slightly as the cut closed, leaving only a faint pink line.

"That is...very good, for someone your age."

Sakura blushed lightly at the praise. "It's no big deal..." she said humbly. "I've been doing chakra control and chakra increasing exercises since I was four, and I've been studying the human anatomy since I was 5...or 6..."

"Anyway, I've got two techniques I can teach you, but I'll give you the easier one for now. I'm not much of a medic nin, but I know three jutsus ; Mystical Palm technique, Delicate Illness Extraction technique and one I recently picked up, Body Numbing technique. The last is the one I'll teach you. You can use it to numb pain, and it only has one seal so it can be used quickly in dangerous situations. It can be used offensively, to numb an opponent's body, hindering their movements and possibly making them oblivious to pain, which may make them use a part of their body which has been hurt. Anyway, this is mainly just to get your experience with medical jutsus up before I teach you the Illness Extraction, and hopefully I'll get someone to teach you the Chakra Scalpel. Anyway, it goes as so..." Kakashi explained as Sakura drunk in every detail.

The two boys' techniques were hard to learn, but Kakashi sensed that they had more than adequate chakra reserves, especially Naruto. It was a half test, as he knew they'd be satisfied, and it should take at least a week to learn. Sakura's jutsu, as he had said, was mainly preparation. If she really wanted to become a medic nin then he'd teach her more, as her chakra control was ridiculously amazing. Her chakra reserves were very large too, which surprised Kakashi, but upon hearing that she had been working on chakra control since she was 4...which was, what, nearly 10 years? It made sense.

So, he was surprised when an hour later Naruto came rushing up to him, claiming that he had learnt the jutsu.

"What?" Kakashi asked incredulously.

"What? It was easy!" Naruto complained. "I only had to use shadow clones!" He said, somewhat defensively.

"Ok...well...How about we do tree climbing exercise, without hands?" Kakashi suggested.

"Been there, done that."

"Water walking?"

"When I was seven."

"Kunai spinning?"

"So last year!"

"Uhm...I...Chakra manipulation excercise?"

"Yaa...No..." Naruto replied.

"Ok, we'll work on that later...we've still got missions, y'know!" Kakashi said, before calling Sakura and Sasuke. Sakura enjoyed good progress, while Sasuke could barely make a tongue of flame, never mind a whip. It left him very annoyed. "Let's go to the tower...Hey Sakura, you've been keeping count, how much missions have we done?"

"29, Kakashi-sensei!" She replied. They then silently made their way to the Hokage tower, reaching their destination in little more than 5 minutes. They went to the secretary, who granted them permission to go in.

"Team 7, reporting for duty."

"Ahh, team 7. You can...get groceries for Mrs. Chikoto, babysit the Hinsami twins, help with shop reconstruction or rescue the Daimyo's wife's cat, To-" Sandaime said, shuffling some papers.

"NO!" Naruto interrupted. "We've had enough of these chores! How are we to know our worth as a ninja if we can't do any decent missions? I didn't become a shinobi to help some old codger paint his house, or to babysit some annoying brats! Give us a DECENT mission you old man!".

The silence was painful, then...

"NARUTO YOU BAKA! HOW DARE YOU DISRESPECT THE HOKAGE LIKE THAT?" Sakura shouted, whacking him on the head. "I'm sorry Hokage-sama, he can be an idiot, but you already know that..."

"Hmm...Team 7, 29 D-Rank missions...yes, you've been the fastest team so far. Two missions a day it seems."

Naruto coughed something that sounded like 'Shadow Clones', resulting in his remaining two team members glowering at him.

"I think I can give you a C Rank...What do you say, Sakura?" Sandaime asked, shocking the girl.

"I...Uh...I disagree with the way Naruto said it, but I do agree with my teammate. We've done over double everyone I know, from the graduating rookie class at least."

"I agree with the dobe." Sasuke said, smirking lightly.

"Kakashi-san?" Sandaime asked.

"I think...I think they're ready. It depends on the type of mission."

"Well...I think this one would be good...a retrieval mission..." The Hokage said, handing Kakashi a scroll. His eyes widened.

"But...she never comes..." He stuttered.

"I know, but there will be a temporary replacement."

"What? Who..."

Suddenly, the door burst open, letting smoke seep in.

"Me!" An annoying sounding deep voice said, though the perpetrator could not be seen. "The almighty Jiraiya!"

The smoke drifted away, revealing an old man with long spiky white hair, two odd red stripes running down either side of his face and a large scroll attached to his back. He wore a baggy green outfit, with a belt and a red jacket on top of it. Of course, if you asked the kids there, they'd just say he looked like an idiot.

To save the kids, Sandaime was about to interrupt his dance introduction, but Sakura got to it first.

"Urgh! Your that disgusting author who rights those horrible, dirty books!" She exclaimed, wrinkling her nose as she pointed him accusingly.

Jiraiya was about to responded but Kakashi got their first. The jounin pulled out his Icha Icha book, hugging it and screaming. "Don't insult my precioussss!"

"Ahem. Anyway, Jiraiya, go take the kids to training ground 7 and introduce yourself, and the mission. Wait, on second thought, don't introduce yourself, let them introduce themselves. They're still innocent!" The hokage ordered, sighing.

'_I'm too old for this.'_

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

All of them, save Sasuke, shunshined to the training ground, greatly annoying the Uchiha. When he arrived, he found the old man frantically writing in a notepad, Sakura holding her chest for some reason and Naruto glaring angrily.

Suddenly, Jiraiya put his notepad away, saying, "Ah, our last member decided to join us. Take a seat." Sasuke leaned against a tree instead. "Right, anyway, our mission is to look for, and convince, Tsunade Senju to return to Konoha."

"Why would we want Tsunade-sama to come back?" Sakura asked perceptively.

"Plenty of reasons. First of all, about...7 daimyos have complained about growing debts involving her."

"SEVEN?" Sakura asked incredulously.

"Yes, seven. Sarutobi-sensei wants her to be his successor..."

"No way! That's not fair, I'm supposed to take the hat off old man hokage! What's so special about her?" Naruto complained.

To his surprise, Sakura answered. "She's one of the strongest kunoichi to come out of the shinobi lands. She is one of the legendary three sannin, which are Jiraiya-sama, the Gama-sennin (frog sage), Tsunade-sama, and ..." her face visibly darkened. "Orochimaru, the snake bastard. She has amazing chakra control and unrivalled strength, and she is well known for her medical expertise."

"See? Everyone has a little bit of fangirlism in them!" Jiraiya stated , getting a chuckle from Sasuke and a glare from Sakura. "Anyway...we'll be gone for at least two weeks, get packed!"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

**There we go, even though nobody likes this story...I do! IKEIKE**


End file.
